SAN DIEGO--The financial services industry, now at the height of an expensive national campaign to delay the so-called Durbin amendment, was urged Wednesday to do the opposite: contact elected officials at home to explain the local effects of the legislation.
That advice came here May 11 at the ETA Annual Meeting & Expo during a presentation by none other than one of the crafters of the legislation containing the amendment, former Sen. Christopher Dodd.
“You’ve got to engage them,” he said of approaching members of Congress directly, especially when they visit their home districts. “You’d be surprised at the results you get.”
Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat who spent six years in the House of Representatives and 30 years in the Senate, was a co-author of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. Durbin’s amendment to that legislation led to the Federal Reserve Board proposing a 12-cent cap on debit card interchange, down from today’s 44-cent average per transaction, and more choice in payment-network routing.
A member of the ETA audience in the San Diego Convention Center suggested members of Congress did not seem to realize that a similar cap in Australia simply benefited retailers, who chose to keep the windfall and did not lower consumer prices.
In response, Dodd admitted legislators often vote on bills they know nothing about. With their minds on the deficit, the national debt, Iraq and Afghanistan, lawmakers may neglect financial-services matters, he said.
Moreover, members of Congress know the evening news will not lead with a story on interchange, Dodd said. That leaves interested parties with the task of educating their representatives, he said.
Most elected officials take a keen interest when shown the local effects of legislation, Dodd said. Trips to Washington can work, but visiting officials when they return home works even better, he noted.
Failing to take on that work leaves the financial-services industry vulnerable, Dodd said.
“If you don’t do it,” he noted, “someone else will.”
