House Vote on Financial Choice Act Likely to Occur Soon

The House Financial Services Committee passed the Financial Choice Act along party lines which includes language to repeal debit card fee reform. The bill will likely come to the House floor for a full vote the week of May 22nd.

Repealing the Durbin amendment would be extremely harmful to retailers because it ultimately brought competition to the debit card fee market. PMAA has been working with the Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC) and meeting with House Financial Services Committee members for the past year to educate members of Congress about the benefits of the Durbin amendment. MPC is currently speaking with several members of the House to encourage them to introduce a floor amendment that would strip the Durbin amendment repeal language in the Financial Choice Act.

This is a top issue for petroleum marketers heading into PMAA’s annual “Day on the Hill” event May 17-19. PMCI will be represented at PMAA’s “Day on the Hill” with staff members as well as marketers.