The Sconi

Rob Rasmussen, a former tutor and Oak Creek resident, said proposed Senate Bill 1838, the Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA), would be a benefit only to major corporations and would negatively impact American consumers and small businesses. 

“I am strongly opposed to the Credit Card Competition Act (Senate Bill 1838), sponsored by U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Roger Marshall (R-KS),” Rasmussen wrote in a recent op-ed in WisPolitics. “The bill is being presented as a winning option for the US economy, but small businesses will be the biggest losers while large retailers stand to gain the most.”

“This legislation is nothing more than a government handout for massive retailers, giving them the power to decide which network to route credit card transactions over,” he wrote. “Small businesses deserve policies that strengthen them and help them to survive. In an environment where it is difficult enough to achieve success going up against big corporations, this bill weakens their resilience and makes them a target.”

The bill, S. 1838, or the “Credit Card Competition Act” (CCCA, S. 1838), sponsored by U.S. Sens. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kans.), would require banks to offer merchants at least two network options, one of which cannot be Visa or Mastercard, for processing credit card transactions. Opponents to the bill argue that if given the choice, retailers would likely choose cheaper, less secure networks for processing transactions, thereby exposing consumers to increased securities and fraud risks.  

“The primary issue with the CCCA is that it would mandate banks and credit unions to route credit card transactions through the lowest-cost networks,” Haleigh Laverty, communications specialist with the Defense Credit Union Council, told The Sconi. “This could expose transactions to increased fraud risks, as these networks often underinvest in security innovations.”

S. 1838 is currently pending in the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.