Christopher Dodd

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate to conduct a hearing on Tuesday, June 2, 2009, at 2:15 p.m., in room SD-366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the managers' amendment, which is at the desk, be considered and agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. DODD. Madam President, I ask that the previous order regarding the cloture vote commence.

Mr. DODD. Madam President, I move to reconsider the vote and to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. DODD. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that it be in order to make a point of order, en bloc, on the pending amendments.

Mr. DODD. Madam President, I make a point of order, en bloc, that the pending amendments are not germane postcloture.

Mr. DODD. Yes, I would be happy to yield.

Mr. DODD. That is my understanding.

Mr. DODD. That is my understanding. It is not the intent of this provision to eliminate deferred interest programs that help consumers. In fact, the payment allocation provisions in the legislation envision the continued availability of such programs.

Mr. DODD. Madam President, I will reserve my remarks until after the vote. I know my colleagues want to vote. I thank my colleagues--Senator Shelby, the leadership--for bringing us to this moment. This is a very important bill. We would not have gotten here without a tremendous amount of cooperation. This is a good moment for all the people in our country and a good moment for consumers. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. As if in executive session, I ask unanimous consent that the order with respect to the Gensler nomination be modified to provide that the debate with respect to the nomination occur after the vote which is scheduled for 2:15 p.m. today.

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I see my colleague from Washington is here. My intention is to come back at some point later this afternoon and talk about the credit card bill. We have talked about it a lot over the last number of weeks, but I know there are other matters other people want to bring up at this juncture. So I will reserve some time this afternoon to thank my colleagues from the Banking Committee, and also my colleagues, such as Senator Levin, who has been a champion of this issue for as long as I have, and others who have worked tirelessly to make this happen. So I will reserve.

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate receives a message from the House with respect to S. 896 the Senate concur in the amendment of the House, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table; that this order is only valid if the House amendment is identical to the text which is at the desk; that if the text is not identical, then this order is null and void.

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the President's nomination of Gary Gensler to be the Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. I have known Gary for some time and believe he is a dedicated and thoughtful public servant who has emerged over the years as a leader within his field and a person of real integrity. Mr. Gensler's previous career with the investment banking firm of Goldman Sachs and in the Treasury Department, as well as his new work assisting this administration, along with his intelligence, experience and personal skills, will enable him to be an effective Chairman of the CFTC. I am aware of his work in connection with the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, a bill that contributed to deregulation of derivatives markets. With the benefit of hindsight, we can see the harms that an absence of regulation over credit default swaps, for example, can cause and the need for regulation in the derivatives markets. I have talked with him about these regulatory issues, and I know he recognizes the importance of an energetic, assertive regulatory approach. I fully expect Mr. Gensler to use his talents and skills to effectively regulate the markets, learn from the past and exercise his clear and independent judgment to protect and promote the integrity of the futures markets, and to protect taxpayers. I expect the Senate will continue to exercise oversight of decisions made by the CFTC that may impact the broader financial markets.

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. Madam President, I wish to speak off the bill. I know my colleagues are talking about the supplemental appropriations bill. But I wish to take a few minutes, if I could, with the permission of the managers of the legislation, to talk about the credit card legislation that passed this morning. I did not have the opportunity, given the time constraints, to express some brief thoughts about the passage of that legislation. So I rise to thank my colleagues. By an overwhelming vote of 90 to 5, this body voted earlier today to adopt the credit card reform legislation. I am very grateful to my colleagues. I am grateful to Senator Shelby, my cochair, if you will, the former chairman of the Banking Committee, for his work. Obviously, this was a bipartisan effort, with a vote of 90 to 5. The final conclusion was one that was embraced by an overwhelming majority of our colleagues. I thank them for that. Twenty years ago, many of my colleagues who are still in this Chamber will recall how we stood to try to get the credit card industry to respond to some of the activities that began then. In those days, they were not quite as pernicious as they have become. But, nonetheless, you could see the handwriting on the wall as to where these issuers were headed. We did not engage as effectively then as we probably should have. We said then that too many of these companies were starting to cross a line, starting to engage in abusive, deceptive, and misleading practices that were trapping their customers into far more debt than certainly they, the customers, ever agreed to. But that was more than two decades ago, and since that time, we have all seen what has happened across our Nation: penalty fees that are increasingly common, for infractions that are increasingly ridiculous-- for paying by phone or by e-mail or by check, which are ways you get penalized today; anytime, any reason under contracts, where interest rates could be raised that can turn a few hundred dollars of obligation into a lifetime of debt; disclosures that you need a microscope to read and a lawyer's degree to understand. For too long, credit card companies have resorted to tactics that drive families deeper and deeper and deeper into debt. Well, today the Senate let them know that those days are coming to an end. I am grateful to my colleagues for their votes. I wish to take a few minutes to thank fellow Senators and staff who have worked diligently to help me improve this legislation. As I mentioned earlier, Senator Shelby of Alabama played an important role, and I am grateful to him for agreeing to work on this bill. It came out of the committee on an 11-to-12 vote--the narrowest of margins. It was after that time that we worked to develop a bipartisan bill. In all, I believe this was an inclusive process--striking a very good balance that ensures we provide tough protections for consumers while making sure to maintain the flow of credit into our economy that is so essential to our long-term economic recovery. I wish to thank Senators Carl Levin of Michigan and Claire McCaskill of Missouri, who led the charge to restrict overlimit fees and deceptive marketing of free credit reports. Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey has been a champion from the very beginning on issues impacting young people--requiring credit card companies to consider consumers' ability to pay when issuing credit cards, increasing protections for students against aggressive credit card marketing, and more transparency in affinity arrangements between credit card companies and universities. With respect to affinity cards and protection of students, I also wish to thank Senator Casey of Pennsylvania, Senator Feinstein of California, Senator Corker of Tennessee, and Senator Grassley of Iowa for their leadership as well. Let me also thank several of our colleagues with whom we worked to include protections regarding small business--Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland, Senator Johanns of Nebraska, and Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana. They strove mightily to include a study and report on the use of credit cards by small businesses. Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine worked with our Senate colleague from Louisiana to include the establishment of a Small Business Information Security Task Force in this legislation. Several additional measures were included at the behest of my colleagues that I think strengthen the legislation. Senator Charles Schumer of New York authored the provision to scale back abuses on prepaid gift cards, and that provision is now included in the bill that passed. Senator Dan Akaka of Hawaii wisely suggested we seek a clarification of the certification process for credit counselors--something I believe will prove extremely valuable given the clear need for greater financial literacy among consumers. Senator Susan Collins of Maine, with my colleague, Senator Lieberman of Connecticut, asked that we include provisions to prevent money laundering through the use of what they call stored value cards which are being increasingly used by drug cartels to smuggle money across our borders. I am happy we were able to include those provisions in the bill as well. My colleagues from California and New Hampshire, Senator Feinstein and Senator Gregg, worked with us to include a study and report on emergency PIN technology that would allow banking customers to signal for help when forced to withdraw cash from ATMs. Another study and report on which we worked with Senator Kohl of Wisconsin to include is on the marketing of products such as debt cancellation agreements, which some have long argued are of questionable benefit to consumers. Finally, I wish to thank the President of the United States, President Obama, for stepping up and stepping in, and for using the bully pulpit of his Presidency to help us gain public awareness of these issues as well. As we cross the finish line today and the House considers what we have sent them, I believe the victory will not be, of course, for our President or for the Congress or for the authors of this legislation or even for the Members I have mentioned in these remarks. Truly the victory will be for people such as Don and Samantha Moore of Guilford, CT, and their three daughters; or Kristina Jorgenson of Southbury CT; and Phil Sherwood, a member of the city council, of New Britain, CT. All of these constituents of mine came to me with stories about how they had seen abuses by the credit card industry. In the case of Don and Samantha Moore: 40 years of credit card allegiance, one 3-day-late payment resulted in an increase from 12 to 27 percent in interest rates and reducing their credit limit from $32,000 to $4,000. They run a small business. It probably put them out of business--just for being 3 days late for the first time in 40 years. In the case of Kristina Jorgenson in Southbury: She watched her rates go from 5 percent to 24 percent for being 3 days late--the first time ever--in a credit card payment. One of those days was a Sunday, by the way. She had taken out the credit card debt to pay off her student loans. They charged her because of the retroactive fees, the 24 percent, making it almost impossible for her to ever meet those obligations. To meet that criteria, she dipped into her individual retirement account which she had saved. She was in retirement and she has now cut that retirement down to 45 percent of its value in order to pay off the credit card debt. Three days late, one time, 5 percent to 24 percent. Phil Sherwood didn't do anything at all. He paid his bills every month, never a day late, and watched his rates skyrocket, he and his wife. These stories I tell could be repeated over and over all across the country. More than 70 million accounts in one 11-month period, affecting one out of four families, saw interest rates skyrocket. For the life of me, I don't quite understand what the industry was thinking of, having just overreached time and time again. But as a result of the bill we passed today by the vote I mentioned, we have made significant inroads into the kind of practices the people I mentioned here were afflicted with. Unfortunately, it doesn't happen overnight. The bill has a period of time before the new restrictions go into effect. I would have liked to have had a much shorter period, but these bills require compromise, and they don't become the fulfillment of the wishes of any one Member of this body. It requires working with each other and, as a result of that effort, we ended up with a longer period of time than I liked but, nonetheless, less than the official period of the Federal Reserve Board's regulations, which would be a year and a half from now. So American consumers have a responsibility. That needs to be said over and over. But they also have rights, and those rights ought to be that they can count on a contract they enter into. I know of no other contractual relationship, whether it is purchasing a home, buying an automobile or an appliance, where the one party can virtually unilaterally change the terms of the contract. Yet that goes on every day with credit card issuers. Madam President, 20 to 25 percent of students now have over $7,000 in credit card debt--25 percent of our student body at the university and collegiate level. The average college graduate owes over $4,000, a major factor of some students dropping out of school. The average family in our country, with credit cards, now has what they call revolving debt--the bulk of which is credit card debt--well in excess of $10,000 per family. So, clearly, with those kinds of obligations and debts, something needed to be done. That is what we have done with this legislation. So the industry has obligations. Consumers have the right not to be taken to the cleaners, and they have a right to expect that they will be treated fairly when they enter into a contractual agreement; that they won't be the only ones required to uphold their end of the bargain. Certainly, consumers have a right not to live in fear that a clause buried in the fine print of their credit card contracts might someday be their financial undoing, and they should have a right to trust that their child won't be saddled with debt before they have turned 21. Standing up for those families and their children and forcing those rights is what this legislation was designed to do, and we accomplished that goal. So I wish to thank my colleagues again for their efforts, their diligence, their commitment to ensuring that we pass a strong bill that will benefit consumers across the country. I wish to thank majority leader Harry Reid, and I wish to thank the minority leader, the Republican leader. Harry Reid provided the time and space for the consideration of this bill which would not have happened if the leadership didn't decide to make that time available for something as complicated as this, with many different ideas that were brought to the table. I wish to thank the floor staff that is here for their work, both the majority and minority side as well. They were very patient. It has been over 2 weeks now. We dealt with the housing bill last week, and now the credit card bill this week, and they had to put up with me for 2 straight weeks on the floor of this Chamber. I am very grateful to them. I wish to thank my staff as well. Linsey Graham, who is on the Banking Committee staff, has done a magnificent job over the years and in working on this legislation. Amy Friend, Charles Yi, Colin McGinnis, along with other members of the staff, but they were the principal ones who spent long hours and nights over the weekends over the past several weeks to pull this legislation together. Bill Duhnke and Mark Oesterle of Senator Shelby's staff as well worked very hard, and I am very grateful to them. I wish to thank the staff here as well. Certainly, the majority leader's staff, Gary Myrick and Randy Devalk, who did a great job, and I thank them. I can't say enough about Lula Davis and about Tim Mitchell. Trish Engle and Jacques Purvis did a wonderful job. I thank them. I thank David, as well, on the minority staff. They were just wonderful. I tried their patience, I know, on more occasions than I care to remember, but without their involvement over these past several days we would not have been able to achieve this accomplishment today. That also includes Joe Lapia and Brandon Durflinger, Meredith Mellody and Esteban Galvan as well from the cloakroom staff who worked so hard. I am sure I have left some people out, and I apologize if I have done so in thanking them for their work. But all of these people in their own way contribute to what happens here. They don't often get mentioned. Those of us who have the right to speak in this Chamber are the ones who are seen and heard, but I want my constituents and people in this country to know there are people every day whose names you will never know, whose faces you will never see, who contribute mightily to the products that get produced in this body. It takes cooperation on the part of all of us, regardless of where we come from, what party affiliation we are, what ideological leanings we may have. They are wonderful, remarkable people who give their time and their professional careers to this institution and who make these kinds of events and these kinds of results achievable. So I thank them all, and I thank all of my colleagues again. I look forward to a day in the hopefully not too distant future when President Obama will sign this legislation into law. I yield the floor.

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I see my good friend from Alabama is here as well. I wanted to give my colleagues a little sense of an update. I know we are all anxious to know how we are progressing. While we haven't had a vote this morning on any amendments, I think words of encouragement might be helpful at this juncture, to let Members know we are reaching agreement or have reached agreement on a series of amendments that will be incorporated into either a managers' amendment or some manner or form. To give my colleagues an idea of the amendments being worked out: Senator Collins of Maine and my colleague from Connecticut, Senator Lieberman, have an amendment on what is called ``stored value'' cards which we will reach an agreement on; Senator Feinstein and Senator Corker, along with Senator Casey and Senator Grassley, have an amendment on university--I believe the word is either ``affiliates'' or ``attitudes.'' Anyway, it is dealing with younger people on university campuses and credit cards. We have either reached an agreement on that or are reaching one, but one will be reached on that as well. There is the amendment from Senator Levin dealing with deceptive advertising, which I think we have reached agreement on as well. Senator Kohl has an amendment for a study on the marketing of credit cards. Senator Feinstein and Senator Gregg have an amendment on an emergency PIN program FTC study that has also either been agreed to or is in the process of reaching an agreement. Senator Akaka has an amendment dealing with credit counseling standards. He has been a strong advocate of that for many years and we thank him for it. That is also an issue upon which we have reached some agreement. There is an amendment dealing with usury and an interest rate study which I will offer. We had a vote yesterday on at least the waiver--we didn't actually have a vote on the Sanders amendment--dealing with a cap on interest rates set to the national credit union standard. I supported the Senator's effort to waive the budget point of order for us to debate that. That is not to say I would have agreed necessarily with that specific amount, but clearly there is a strong desire in the country to get our arms around this issue of exorbitant interest rates. I thought maybe we ought to be doing it, because there are different institutions with different methods of calculating that. We probably ought to take a look at how we can do that in a more comprehensive manner. So there are a number of agreements. I see my friend from Alabama. Our staffs worked together last night late into the evening and were able to sit down with Members on both sides of the proverbial aisle, as we talk about here, to reach an understanding. While we have not had a vote this morning on any amendments, work is being done to come to final conclusion on these amendments. There are amendments that we have not reached agreement on. Let me say to my colleagues, cloture has been filed by the leader. My hope is we can finish this bill today. I have a list of 30 or 40 amendments here from Members who wish to offer them. We have a good bill. Is it a perfect bill? No. Is it a bill that Senator Shelby would have written on his own? No. Is it one I would have written on my own? No. But, again, we have a product that is worthy of this institution's support. It is the first time we have dealt with reform of the credit card issuing industry. At a time when our fellow constituents are being hammered by rising costs, by fees and interest rate hikes that make it harder and harder for them to keep their families together economically, it is a major step forward and it is deserving of our support. That is not to suggest that many of these amendments are not good ideas. It doesn't mean we have finished this debate once and for all, forever. Obviously, we will be back on these issues. We are in this Congress, and we will in the next as well. We want to see how this works. We believe it will work well on behalf of our fellow citizens. But at some point we need to get moving and get this done, even though it comes short of everyone else's ideal goal. I say that respectfully. I have some Members with six or seven different amendments they want to offer. If that is the case, we will never finish this bill. I don't think that is in our interests. Every day we delay is a delay for the final enactment of this legislation or the imposition of its standards. Implementation is nine months from enactment. Every day we wait pushes that date further out at a time when we can help our fellow citizens in this matter of credit card reform. I won't go back through all the provisions that are incorporated in the bill. I have done that several times. I think my colleagues are pretty well aware of what is included. This is a bipartisan bill. People didn't think we could reach this point. We have done so. Once again, Senator Shelby and I have worked together with our staffs to achieve that. This bill has been roundly endorsed and supported by every major consumer group in this country. That is no small achievement. So there ought to be a moment of pride here that we have put something together worthy of our support. These amendments I have mentioned already which we can adopt, we will in either a managers' amendment or by some means by which they can be accepted, but then we need to take these other remaining amendments and I need to have colleagues decide whether they are willing to have them modified or studied or whether they are willing to have their amendments not be offered at this time. They can help considerably or we run the risk of losing this bill. I wouldn't have said that a day or so ago, but we are getting precariously close to that outcome: pushing this off to next week. We have the supplemental coming up. When the agenda is taken over by other items, it is very difficult to come back. So here we are on the cusp of actually achieving an unprecedented result and I don't want to see us lose that opportunity. I urge my colleagues to step up and come give us a hand to try and move forward on this bill. I yield the floor.

Mr. DODD. I thank my colleague from Missouri. He is absolutely right. The interchange fees are a tremendously important issue. We have put in, at the urging of Senator Corker on our committee, a thorough study of the interchange issue. It is complicated, and the Senator is correct. Among small businesses, this is a very onerous area and we need to address it. I thought we needed to understand the fullness of the issue, so we talked about the study. Senators Durbin, Bond, and others have a proposal that touches on the interchange issue. We are working with them to see if we can reach an agreement on that. We will make an effort to do that. I thank the Senator for his comments. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. DODD. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Finance be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, May 14, 2009, at 10 a.m., in room 215 of the Dirksen Senate office building.

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, May 14, 2009, at 9:45 a.m.

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, May 14, 2009, at 2 p.m., to hold a hearing entitled ``The Middle East: The Road to Peace.''

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.