WASHINGTON – Senators blew a big hole in the credit card reform bill yesterday when they voted to add an unrelated provision that would allow visitors to national parks to carry concealed weapons.
The unrelated amendment, allowed under the Senate’s arcane rules, threatens to blow apart the bill when it moves back to the House for a vote, lobbyists said yesterday.
Senators also voted down a proposal to set a national interest rate cap on credit cards, something that NCUA has been doing for years.
After the effort failed, Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, the Democratic chairman of the banking committee, proposed that the Federal Reserve be asked to provide an analysis of how Congress could rein in interest rates.
Senators said they hoped to finish up the credit card bill as early as Thursday, coinciding with a town hall meeting by President Obama on credit card issues in New Mexico.
The main provisions of the bill, already passed by the House, would such practice as double-cycle billing and universal default, and solicitation of credit cards to minors, without adult consent.
