Press Releases

WASHINGTON — Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) Chair Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) and 53 of her CPC colleagues wrote to Speaker Mike Johnson welcoming a debate and vote on H.J. Res. 122. This Republican-led legislation would invalidate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB’s) recently finalized Credit Card Penalty Fees Rule (Regulation Z), which lowers most late fees charged by big banks issuing credit cards from $32 to $8, just a quarter of the original penalty. 

“We look forward to this opportunity to highlight the Republican Majority’s enthusiastic support for junk fees, including exorbitant credit card fees,” the lawmakers wrote. “We think it is critical that the American people understand the House Republican Conference’s firm and dedicated commitment to protecting the business model of unfettered, predatory fines imposed by large corporate banks against ordinary Americans.” 

“We look forward to a promptly scheduled vote that allows every House Republican to go on the record opposing an initiative that will rein in a loophole exploited by corporate giants to boost their profits at the expense of American households,” the Members added. “We are unsurprised that House Republicans uniformly insist on defending large corporate banks’ current practice of overcharging Americans with credit-card late fees and welcome the opportunity to highlight the contrast in our priorities on the House floor this summer.” 

The CFPB estimates that the largest issuers earn about five times more from late fees than it costs them to collect those fees. Ending this practice through the rule, which requires large companies to prove that fees higher than $8 are necessary to cover their actual collection costs, will save Americans $10 billion annually, averaging $220 a year in savings for over 45 million people.

The lawmakers concluded by noting that “the Congressional Progressive Caucus has strongly supported the Biden Administration’s laser focus on lowering costs for ordinary Americans, providing financial breathing room for working families, and creating an open and even playing field in which companies must compete with each other to provide working people with better products, services, and wages. We are proud to partner with the Administration to address priorities in our CPC Executive Action Agenda to attack junk fees across American industries like banking, where corporate bad actors have gotten away with business models that maximize profits through unfair penalties, fee harvesting, and bait-and-switch tactics, preying on financially vulnerable and less-educated customers in particular.”  

The letter was signed by CPC Chair Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Deputy Chair Ilhan Omar (MN-05), Whip Greg Casar (TX-35), Alma Adams (NC-12), Becca Balint (VT-01), Nanette Barragán (CA-44), Suzanne Bonamici (OR-01), Jamaal Bowman (NY-16), Cori Bush (MO-01), André Carson (IN-07), Troy Carter (LA-02), Matt Cartwright (PA-08), Judy Chu (CA-28), Rosa DeLauro (CT-03), Christopher Deluzio (PA-17), Mark DeSaulnier (CA-10), Debbie Dingell (MI-06), Lloyd Doggett (TX-37), Veronica Escobar (TX-16), Dwight Evans (PA-03), Valerie Foushee (NC-04), Maxwell Frost (FL-10), Jesús ‘Chuy’ García (IL-04), Jimmy Gomez (CA-34), Raúl M. Grijalva (AZ-07), Jonathan Jackson (IL-01), Sheila Jackson Lee (TX-18), Henry C. "Hank" Johnson, Jr. (GA-04), Ro Khanna (CA-17), Barbara Lee (CA-12), Summer L. Lee (PA-12), Teresa Leger Fernandez (NM-03), Ted Lieu (CA-36), Morgan McGarvey (KY-19), James P. McGovern (MA-02), Grace Meng (NY-06), Jerrold Nadler (NY-12), Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), Mark Pocan (WI-02), Katie Porter (CA-47), Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), Delia C. Ramirez (IL-03), Jamie Raskin (MD-08), Andrea Salinas (OR-06), Janice D. Schakowsky (IL-09), Brad Sherman (CA-32), Mark Takano (CA-41), Rashida Tlaib (MI-12), Jill Tokuda (HI-02), Paul Tonko (NY-20), Nydia M. Velázquez (NY-07), Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12), and Nikema Williams (GA-05).