Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights passes US Senate; President Obama expected to sign identical House bill before Memorial Day

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Government reform orgs. deliver news on major events within their areas of expertise.
From: U.S. PIRG

Statement: Credit Card Bill passes Senate

Statement of Ed Mierzwinski, Consumer Program Director On Senate Passage of the Credit CARD Act

“U.S. PIRG commends the Senate on overwhelming passage of the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act, S 414, as introduced by Senator Chris Dodd, Chair of the Senate Banking Committee. While the House has already passed a similar Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights, we expect that the House will simply pass the identical Senate bill so Congress can send a final bill for the President to sign before Memorial Day.

For too long, owning a credit card company has been a license to steal. Over the last few years, the banks increased their use of abusive tactics, such as changing due dates so they could trick consumers into paying late. Worse, they charged a double whammy—a high late fee first and then tripled interest rates to 36% APR or more. Second, they started charging good customers higher rates because they supposedly paid some other creditor late (universal default). But that wasn’t enough, so they started raising the rates of customers who’d been late to no creditor, for no reason at all. That was their biggest mistake. Gouging everyone caused thousands and thousands of Americans who just want a fair deal to contact Congress and even the Federal Reserve.

The Credit Card Act bans nearly all retroactive rate increases on current balances, it prohibits universal default in the first year and it protects college students from unfair marketing of credit cards.

I’ve been in Washington twenty years. For the first 19 we couldn’t even get a committee vote on credit card reform despite these practices.

Due to abusive practices by credit card companies, we are now on the verge of historic credit card reform. Is it everything we want? No, we should also ban raising rates going forward, not just retroactively, and we should ban forced arbitration clauses in credit card contracts and reinstate usury ceilings. But final passage of this historic credit card reform legislation will stop big credit card companies, many of which are feeding at the TARP taxpayer trough, from cheating Americans out of their hard-earned money. That will help working families so that they can become part of our economic recovery, not lurch on a credit card debt treadmill. It’s about time.”

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Posted by Ed Mierzwinski at May 19, 2009 02:01 PM

[Original U.S. PIRG article accepts comments]

>All Things Reform Mobile: allthingsreform.mofuse.mobi >Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121 (not toll-free) >US House/Senate Mobile: bit.ly/members >Contact your reps tips: bit.ly/dear >Shortened All Things Reform URL: bit.ly/dw

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Donate to U.S. PIRG reform program for the finance industry

Government reform orgs. deliver news on major events within their areas of expertise.
From: TXPIRG (U.S. PIRG)

AIG goes golfing, we go to work

Click here to give.

It's despicable, but it really happened.

Just one week after taxpayers bailed out insurance giant AIG with $85 billion, the company blew nearly half a million dollars at the swanky St. Regis golf resort.

They spent $23,000 at the spa, $150,000 on meals and wine, and even treated their dogs to the $545/night "Pamper Your Pooch" package.

Congress and the Bush administration are handing out billions in taxpayer money to banks and corporations like AIG without adequate safeguards against abuse. In fact, just yesterday they decided to give the company another $37.8 billion! [1]

Now, more than ever, we need vigilance and oversight, and we need our leaders to make responsible decisions that protect taxpayers.

That's why we need U.S. PIRG (our national federation) on Capitol Hill, watch-dogging the execution of this so-called rescue plan.

https://www.texpirg.org/action/financial/work-not-golf?id4=ES

Instead of walking around the golf course, Ed Mierzwinski and John Krieger (my go-to guys on our Wall Street Oversight campaign) were meeting with our representatives on Capitol Hill trying to improve the bailout so it works better for all of us, not just the fat cats (and their pampered pooches).

We're going to convene a major summit of economists and reformists to write an economic policy that puts permanent checks and balances on our financial system to be passed in the first 100 days of the next Congress.

We've also proposed a government chartered consumer watchdog organization to counter the power of the financial services industry.

We know that we got to this point because the most powerful and entrenched special interests have manipulated the rules and re-written the laws. They will do everything in their power to take our money and run without the systematic reform that is needed. I promise you that we are not going to let that happen.

But to do all that, we need additional support from folks like you.

https://www.texpirg.org/action/financial/work-not-golf?id4=ES

Having our advocates on Capitol Hill doesn't cost you $545/night, but it does take some funding. And unlike the corporate lobbyists, we get our money a little at a time, from a whole lot of regular people.

Thanks in advance for making a contribution, and I look forward to reporting to you with a victory on this campaign.

Sincerely,

Joe Rupp
TexPIRG Citizen Outreach Director
JoeR@texpirg.org
http://www.TexPIRG.org

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/business/economy/09insure.html

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>All Things Reform Mobile: allthingsreform.mofuse.mobi >Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121 (not toll-free) >US House/Senate Mobile: bit.ly/members >Contact your reps tips: bit.ly/dear >Shortened All Things Reform URL: bit.ly/dw

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Ask your congress members to double public transportation funding in transportation bill

U.S. PIRG state affiliates are running an online petition to improve our nation's transportation system. It asks our congress members to double the portion invested in public transportation in the new, six-year transportation bill.

Folks are already responding to higher gas costs by using more public transportation where it is available. In fact, people drove less last year -- for the first time in more than 20 years -- and transit ridership is at a 50-year high.

All activists can go to TXPIRG's petition and sign on as supporters of public transportation. Thank you

Sign petition and send your child's picture to Congress for a strong, safe toy bill

U.S. PIRG is leading a campaign to bring a toy safety bill that has passed both houses of congress to the next step, a joint conference. Very good provisions are included in both the US House (bill H.R.4040) and Senate (bill S.2045) versions; we need to see that Congress passes a final bill that gives the president the best features from both.

This campaign features both a citizens' petition, and a photo collage of our own children that we can upload to the campaign webpage. Please go to U.S. PIRG's toy safety campaign webpage now; here is the text of the petition:

Here’s a picture of my child. Congress should give him/her and millions of
other children the strongest protection possible from dangerous toys. We urge
you to take the strongest parts of both the House and Senate CPSC reform bills
as you prepare a final law for the President’s signature before Father’s Day.
Any final law should protect children up to 12 years old, as the House bill
would provide. It should require third-party testing for hazards of all consumer
products, including toys, as the Senate bill would provide. It should ban toxic
lead at the lowest level possible and include the Senate’s provision banning
toxic phthalate chemicals. On other provisions, children deserve the best of
both bills.

Thank you

Tell President Bush to sign amended SCHIP bill

U.S. PIRG is asking everyone to send a message to President Bush, that poor children's health is more important than banning more tobacco taxes. SCHIP, the State Children's Health Insurance Program has, after a couple of rounds of legislation, mostly bipartisan support-- most Democrats and Republicans in Congress support it; Bush doesn't want to further tax the tobbaco industry to pay for it. Here is what U.S. PIRG says; if you agree, please take action at this webpage:

Background
Just two months ago, U.S. PIRG worked with Congress to pass an important prescription drug safety law. It requires drug companies to tell us the whole truth about the safety of their drugs, and it requires the FDA to crack down on drug companies that break the law by putting out misleading ads or failing to finish safety studies.We stood up to the pharmaceutical industry and won. And now we've turned our attention to children's health insurance.Millions of American kids lack health insurance. Without it, they don't get the preventive care they need, and small problems turn into big health problems. If their health problems grow worse, uninsured kids wind up in emergency rooms, and those costs are borne by those with insurance.The good news is that Congress has a plan to make health care more efficient by covering more uninsured American kids.The State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) currently provides health coverage to 6 million uninsured kids. Congress passed a bill to reauthorize the program and expand it to cover 10 million uninsured American kids. The bill provided new funding for the states, which was paid for with a tax on big tobacco, the culprit of many health-related woes. Expanding this program has bipartisan support in Congress and bipartisan support from governors across the U.S.President Bush vetoed the children's health insurance bill, stating that he was worried that kids who weren't poor would be covered through the program. Since then, Congress has amended the bill to restrict eligibility to only those uninsured kids from families earning 300% of federal poverty or less.The amended bill will go back to President Bush, and we will learn whether his stated concerns were legitimate, or whether he was merely siding with the tobacco industry, which is opposed to the measure.
Please join with us in telling President Bush to sign the amended bill.
http://www.uspirg.org/action/health-care/schip?id4=ES
Sincerely, Joe Rupp, TexPIRG Citizen Outreach Director JoeR@texpirg.org
http://www.texpirg.org/
P.S. Thanks again for your support. Please feel free to share this e-mail with your family and friends.

Your state and federal representatives' ratings scorecards

U.S. PIRG, the center for PIRG state affiliates active in the public interest, has a ratings scorecard for each state legislator and U.S. Congressman. It appears to be continuously updated as legislation is passed. The scorecard concerns how each have already voted in the areas of democracy, consumerism, energy, government waste/ budget and others. It is a good way to see how your state and federal representatives stand on the issues that are promoted by All Things Reform.

You can return to the "U.S. PIRG Public Interest Ratings" link any time on this blog, in the left column under "Government Reform-Related Databases."

Help pass drug safety law

Take on the powerful pharmaceutical drug industry lobby! State affiliates of U.S. PIRG, a public interest group, are running a internet grassroots campaign to pass a drug safety bill. Here is an opportunity for you to help get President Bush to sign it into law (you don't have to live in this affiliate's state to participate). Here's their message:

The drugs in your medicine cabinet will soon be safer because Congress passed strong drugs safety legislation.The House and Senate hammered out an agreement on a final drug safety bill earlier this week and the House passed it on Wednesday. The Senate will pass the identical bill today, but the President, who has sided with the pharmaceutical industry and their goal of weak drug safety reforms, still must sign the bill.The pharmaceutical industry has opposed many of the safety reforms in the bill, but in the end there were too many headlines about dangerous drugs and Congress had to act. We're glad they did.Our top drug safety priority passed. Drug makers must release the results of their safety studies on-line. No more hiding unflattering or dangerous results. This will help patients and doctors figure out if the drug's risk is worth its benefits.
The bill also authorizes the FDA to issues fines of up to $10 million for drug makers who fail to complete follow-up drug safety studies. Drug makers used to routinely ignore follow-up studies. The threat of this stiff fine should get their attention.The bill includes other good safety provisions such as strengthening conflicts-of-interest rules at the FDA and increasing by $225 million the budget for follow-up drug safety studies. These studies are extremely important for people taking drugs for years at a time to control chronic conditions.Together we can make sure this legislation is signed into law. Join me in telling President Bush to sign the strong drugs safety legislation passed by Congress.
To take action, click on the link below or paste it into your browser: https://www.uspirg.org/action/health-care/strong-bill?id4=ES
Sincerely, Dr. Matthew Tejada TexPIRG Advocate, MatthewT@texpirg.org, http://www.texpirg.org/
P.S. Thanks again for your support. Please feel free to share this e-mail with your family and friends.