Credit Cardholders' Bill Of Rights Act Of 2009 - Continued

Floor Speech

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Mr. SANDERS. This amendment is being cosponsored by Senators HARKIN, DURBIN, LEVIN, LEAHY, and Senator Whitehouse. It is not being supported by the American Bankers Association and the other financial institutions that have spent $5 billion in the last 10 years to push their interests against the needs of the American people.

This amendment is, in fact, very simple. It says now is the time to end usury in the United States of America. Now is the time to protect the American people against 25, 30 percent or more interest rates on their credit cards.

It says now, when the American taxpayer is spending hundreds of billions of dollars bailing out Wall Street, they should not be lending the American people their own money at usurious rates.

When banks are charging 30 percent interest rates, they are not making credit available; they are engaged in loansharking. That is what they are engaged in, and we should be very clear about that. Now is the time to eliminate that behavior.

We picked a number, a maximum of 15 percent plus 3 percent, under extraordinary circumstances, not because it came out of the top of my head but because credit unions in this country have been operating under that law for 30 years. And you know what. It has worked well.

It was not the credit unions coming in here for billions of dollars in bailouts; they are doing very well. This law has worked for credit unions; it should work for large financial institutions. Let's stand up for the American people. Let's put a cap on interest rates, 15 percent plus 3.

I ask my colleagues to support this amendment, once again supported by Senators HARKIN, DURBIN, LEVIN, LEAHY, and WHITEHOUSE.

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