Trying to Revive the CCCA, Durbin And Marshall Look to Make It an Amendment to the GENIUS Act

Sponsors of the Credit Card Competition Act moved late Tuesday to attach the legislation as an amendment to the GENIUS Act, a proposed bill to regulate stablecoins.

While the Senate must approve the move, it potentially gives the legislation new life as it failed to advance out of committee in the Senate during the last Congress. The GENIUS Act, or the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act, passed a preliminary vote in the Senate, setting up a final vote on the legislation.

The proposed amendment to the GENIUS Act states that credit card issuers cannot “restrict” the “number of payment card networks on which an electronic credit transaction may be processed” to one or two networks.

The Merchants Payments Coalition, which supports the CCCA, argues in favor of making the bill an amendment to the GENIUS Act, arguing that credit card fees account for more than 70% of the total $224 billion in card fees paid by merchants in 2023. Credit cards account for an estimated 40% of total U.S. spending, according to the 2024 State of the Industry Report from the research firm CMSPI.

“It is time for Congress to deal with the hidden credit card fees driving up the prices of nearly everything we buy,” Doug Kantor, an executive committee member for the Merchants Payments Coalition and general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores, says in a statement. “Credit card companies are now even putting swipe fees on top of tariffs and pushing up prices even more. Congress needs to pass the Credit Card Competition Act to give Main Street and their customers a fighting chance against out-of-control fees.”

Although CCCA co-sponsor Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois used a similar tactic more than a decade ago—attaching Regulation II, which caps debit card fees, to the Dodd Frank Act as an amendment—it is not a sure thing the CCCA will be approved as an amendment to the GENIUS Act, payments experts argue.

“The CCCA still faces a lot of uphill challenges before it passes into law,” says Scott Talbott, executive vice president of the Electronic Transactions Association. “The legislation forces policymakers to choose between banks and credit unions and retailers, both of which are constituents for them.”

Opponents of the CCCA argue the move to pass the legislation is an attempt to bypass a thorough debate by members of Congress. “This bill has never been through a relevant committee, never been debated, and was never even reintroduced this Congress,” Richard Hunt, executive chairman for the Electronic Payments Coalition says in a statement. “Unlike the sponsors of the GENIUS Act, the sponsors of Durbin-Marshall have not done their due diligence.”

Hunt adds that, if the CCCA is attached to the GENIUS Act, it will be a “poison pill” that will kill the act. “Trade groups backed by corporate megastores say they support crypto legislation, yet have been working behind the scenes to see the Durbin-Marshall mandates hung like an albatross around the bill’s neck,” Hunt says. “These mandates are clearly a legislative poison pill and, if adopted, will sink the bipartisan GENIUS Act.”

Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, a supporter of the GENIUS Act, takes a similar stance, reportedly saying that, if the CCCA were to be added to the GENIUS Act, he would “withdraw my support on the Senate floor.”