April 10,2009
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News: Rep. Cleaver (IL) Speaks Out on CC Reform.
Everybody's up in arms about credit card reform right now. While Congress is busy disputing Senator Dodd's bill called "Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act", the House is also seething with frustration over credit card abuses. Rep Emanuel Cleaver (IL) is now, also, speaking strongly but he's not alone in the House. He is accompanied by chairman Barney Frank (D-NY), Subcommittee Chairwoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY) and Sens. Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Mark Udall (D-CO). The House has it's own bill called the "Credit Cardholder's Bill of Rights Act of 2009 (H.R. 627)" They are all co-sponsoring this credit card reform bill.
The bill has already gained approval by both the House Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subcommittee. Now, it has become The first of its kind of credit card reform bill to reach Congress this year. It is a very comprehensive bill in it's scope and takes strong action against credit card industry abuses against consumers.
Rep Cleaver was very disappointed to see the bill stall and die in the Senate last year and is now more determined then ever to see it through, this year. In these perilous economic times, he doesn't believe our country can afford to allow our citizens to be crushed by these "abusive and unfair practices that exploit these difficult times". Our people depend on credit cards for survival, he states.
With unemployment spiraling out of control, our consumers are starting to run cash-dry. They have no choice but to use credit cards and the issuers are running them into ruin with high interest rates and unreasonable payment demands. The consumers are forced to "miss their payments, causing default rates to climb higher," he expressed. And, right now, the government has no control over the situations. We've already bent over backward to bail those banks out.