Find the best credit card offers online.As the bill protecting credit cardholders from unfair and deceptive practices steams through the Senate, unrelated amendments are making their way into the bill. One example is Sen. David Vitter’s immigration provision, which would have banned non-American citizens from owning credit cards. It never really had a chance and was quickly dropped.
However, one amendment that seems to be holding on is one that allows visitors in national parks to carry guns. Surprisingly, the amendment passed through the senate last Tuesday with 67-29 votes.
The approval of the amendment has caused some uproar in congress and a few smirks as well. Rep. Carolyn Maloney’s aide, Jon Houston said, “It’s just wacky.” Jon Houston was speaking in behalf of Rep. Maloney who was the chief sponsor of the credit cardholders’ protection bill which the House recently passed. She has also been pushing for legislation on credit card practices for the past two years.
As President Barack Obama continues to put pressure on the bill, pushing lawmakers to finalize it by Memorial Day and holding town hall meetings in support of the bill, the bill continues to gather momentum in Congress. The fast moving credit card bill is being seen as a vehicle of opportunity by many senators wanting to pass into law some of their pet bills.
The author of the gun-in-national-parks bill, Sen. Tom Coburn saw the bill as an opportunity to push his bill into law. On the senate floor, Sen. Coburn said that his “isn’t a ‘gotcha’ amendment’. He said that what he did was a genuine step for the protection of the Second Amendment. If passed into law, it would reverse a decision from a federal judge made last March, which blocked President George W. Bush’s last-minute rule change that allowed visitors to national parks to bring concealed weapons.
Don Tatro, speaking for Sen. Coburn said, “It was just an opportunity. Congressional leadership has been trying to keep it from happening; and this was just the first opportunity.”
Observers from Capitol Hill do not see that the gun will negatively affect the passage of the credit card bill. The gun measure itself may actually not even make it at all, as its chances of survival are actually minimal as the bill approaches final deliberation.
Unrelated amendments such as the gun amendment are actually slowing down the credit card bill deliberations. The Senate spent last Thursday wading through 30 more amendments to the bill and Sen. Chris Dodd pleaded for reason from lawmakers adding amendments. Sen. Dodd, sponsor of the credit card bill, has complained that the credit card agenda is now being “taken over by other items”.
