On May 27th, 2025, Americans for Tax Reform led a coalition of 22 center-right groups in a letter to members of Congress opposing price controls on credit cards.

Specifically, the coalition objected to a pair of amendments offered by Senators Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) to the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act. The GENIUS Act would establish a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies pegged to another asset like U.S. Dollar or gold, which would enable banks to issue dollar-backed or gold-backed digital currencies. This will smooth frictions in online commerce and squeeze a central bank digital currency out of the market if the Federal Reserve ever tries to create one.

Not content to support good stablecoin legislation that would promote online commerce, Senators Marshall and Hawley introduced amendments to insert their bills regulating prices for credit cards. The Marshall amendment would add his infamous bill with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA), and the Hawley amendment would add his bill with Bernie Sanders (Socialist-Vt.) capping interest rates nationwide.

The letter warns that the Credit Card Competition Act is a danger to small businesses and should be kept out of the GENIUS Act:

The GENIUS Act aims to statutorily codify the rules of the road for payment stablecoin issuers in the United States. The bill provides guidelines for federal and state regulation of payment stablecoins, including transparency requirements, rules to combat money laundering, and safeguards to ensure stable reserves. It would enable banks to issue their own stablecoins pegged to the U.S. dollar, facilitating frictionless digital commerce. However, any attempt to insert provisions of the Durbin-Marshall Credit Card Competition Act into this bill would turn it into a Trojan Horse for credit card price controls.

The coalition letter goes on highlight that passage of the CCCA would pose significant threat to small financial institutions.

According to a recent study, the CCCA “would significantly reduce revenue for community banks and credit unions and – concomitantly – reduce access to credit in smaller markets across the United States, disproportionately affecting low-income households.” Including the CCCA in the GENIUS Act would contravene its purported goal, which is to increase access to financial services.

The Credit Card Competition Act would threaten rewards programs and network security and would amount to government price-fixing that would disrupt preexisting commercial contracts between card networks, banks and merchants, and would ultimately disadvantage smaller merchants over big box stores with the market power to negotiate favorable terms with card networks that small businesses lack.

Similarly, the Sanders-Hawley price control regime ignores the established consensus among economists that price controls create shortages and do not help low-income consumers:

Prior to 1980, the Federal Reserve’s Regulation Q imposed interest rate caps on bank deposit accounts. Regulation Q was gradually phased out between 1980 and 1986. According to a document published by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, “Congress concluded that interest rate ceilings created problems for depository institutions, discriminated against small savers, and did not increase the supply of residential mortgage credit.” The letter concludes: To ensure successful stablecoin legislation and prevent harmful credit card price controls, we urge you to vote against the inclusion of any provisions of the Durbin-Marshall credit card price control bill in the amended GENIUS Act.

Read the full letter here or below.

May 27, 2025

Dear Senator: 

We, the undersigned organizations, oppose efforts to impose price controls on credit cards. The inaccurately namedCredit Card Competition Act has been filed as an amendment to the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act (S. 1582) – if included it would turn the GENIUS Act into a Trojan Horse for credit card price controls. A separate amendment would use what should be a stablecoin bill to impose nationwide caps on credit card interest rates. Any distortive price controls on credit cards would be poison pills for the GENIUS Act that should be kept out.

The GENIUS Act aims to statutorily codify the rules of the road for payment stablecoin issuers in the United States. The bill provides guidelines for federal and state regulation of payment stablecoins, including transparency requirements, rules to combat money laundering, and safeguards to ensure stable reserves. It would enable banks to issue their own stablecoins pegged to the U.S. dollar, facilitating frictionless digital commerce. 

However, any attempt to insert provisions of the Durbin-Marshall Credit Card Competition Act into this bill would turn it into a Trojan Horse for credit card price controls.

The CCCA would also harm small financial institutions. According to a recent study, the CCCA “would significantly reduce revenue for community banks and credit unions and – concomitantly – reduce access to credit in smaller markets across the United States, disproportionately affecting low-income households.” Including the CCCA in the GENIUS Act would contravene its purported goal, which is to increase access to financial services.

The Credit Card Competition Act remains a bad idea that would threaten rewards programs and network security. It would amount to government price-fixing that disrupts preexisting commercial contracts between card networks, banks, and merchants, and it would ultimately disadvantage smaller merchants over big box stores with the market power to negotiate favorable terms with card networks that mom-and-pop stores lack.

Senator Hawley has also filed an amendment to impose price controls on credit cards, which will only make it harder for working Americans to access credit. Congress already recognized that rate caps are distortive. Prior to 1980, the Federal Reserve’s Regulation Q imposed interest rate caps on bank deposit accounts. Regulation Q was gradually phased out between 1980 and 1986. According to a document published by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, “Congress concluded that interest rate ceilings created problems for depository institutions, discriminated against small savers, and did not increase the supply of residential mortgage credit.”

Credit card price controls are not germane to the GENIUS Act would undermine its goals by empowering the Federal Reserve to indefinitely control credit card interchange fees and creating an artificial shortage of credit. 

To ensure successful stablecoin legislation and prevent harmful credit card price controls, we urge you to vote against the inclusion of any provisions of the Durbin-Marshall credit card price control bill in the amended GENIUS Act.

Sincerely,

Grover Norquist                                              Steve Pociask

President                                                                Chief Executive Officer 

Americans for Tax Reform                                 American Consumer Institute 

James Erwin                                                    Phil Kerpen

Interim Director                                                    President

Shareholder Advocacy Forum                          American Commitment

Daniel Erspamer                                             Karen Kerrigan

Chief Executive Officer                                        Policy President & CEO

Pelican Institute for Public Policy.                    Small Business & Entrepreneurship

Council

Brent Gardner                                                 Brandon Arnold

Chief Government Affairs Officer                     President

Americans for Prosperity                                    National Taxpayers Union

Yaël Ossowski                                                 Lisa B. Nelson

Deputy Director                                                    Chief Executive Officer

Consumer Choice Center                                   ALEC Action

Tom Schatz                                                      John Berlau

President                                                                Director of Finance Policy

Council for Citizens Against Government     Competitive Enterprise Institute

Waste

David Williams                                                Paul Gessing

President                                                                President

Taxpayers Protection Alliance                           Rio Grande Foundation

Caroline Melear                                               Lorenzo Montanari

Resident Fellow                                                     Executive Director

R Street Institute                                                   Property Rights Alliance

Ryan Ellis                                                          Gerard Scimeca

President                                                                Chairman

Center for a Free Economy                                Consumer Action for a Strong Economy

David Guenthner                                            Chris Cargill

Vice President of Government Affairs             President

Mackinac Center for Public Policy                    Mountain States Policy Center

Stefan J. Padfield                                             James R. Copland*

Executive Director                                                 Senior Fellow and Director

Free Enterprise Project                                         Legal Policy

National Center for Public Policy Research    Manhattan Institute

*Indicates Individual Signer