November 20, 2009 08:36 PM UTC

Kudos to Udall

• 6 Comments
• by: JO

(“Conservadems,” ho! – promoted by Colorado Pols)

One sideshow in the ongoing struggle to reign in financial institutions in the wake of the Great Recession of ’07-’08-’09 (and counting) has been the predatory practices of banks and other institutions issuing credit cards.

The other day, Thad Cochran, Republican of Mississippi, effectively squelched a bill by Chris Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, to freeze such practices as doubling interest rates, penalizing card-holders whose accounts are current but who may be late on an unrelated account with an entirely different creditor, and charging retroactive interest on balances reduced by payments as long as two months ago.

Last May, Congress passed a bill to end such practices–after 15 more months of allowing. them. Dodd’s bill, which would have ended such practices immediately, was blocked this month by Cochran.

Along comes Mark Udall to the rescue. He has introduced a new bill that would end such practices as of December 1, 2009. His bill is aligned with a similar bill that already passed in the House.

We can hope that the Udall legislation passes the Senate, dodges Republicans’ slavish kowtowing to the banking industry, and garners some strong support for our “senior Senator,” the one who was elected.