National Taxpayers Union on Tuesday implored President Trump to prevent harm to millions of American consumers by abandoning calls for a 10% interest rate cap on credit cards and support for the Credit Card Competition Act.
The harm to consumers and financial markets from these actions would exceed even that of the Durbin Amendment in the Dodd-Frank Act in 2011, which failed to lower prices for consumers, resulted in increased bank fees, and reduced access to basic banking services for millions of Americans.
“Implementing price controls and constricting free competition of credit card processors would be incredibly damaging to taxpayers,” Tommy Aiello, Senior Director of Government Affairs, said. “This would not reduce inflationary pressure on taxpayers but instead will harm taxpayers’ access to critical credit card benefits and programs that many rely on, especially in times of need.”
Meanwhile, the Credit Card Competition Act will destroy benefits and perks that consumers love, resulting in higher annual fees, lower credit access, lower cash back rewards, and lower rewards points and redemption overall for the 81% of Americans who own credit cards.
The mandates in the legislation would encourage merchants to divest from advanced payments networks in favor of cheaper, less secure, and less reliable alternatives. This would result in weakened cybersecurity for electronic payments, putting user data and financial stability of millions of taxpayers at risk, according to analysis from NTU.
Taxpayers would suffer directly too, as governments would face less efficient, less secure administration of payments. According to a 2025 Government Accountability Office study, taxpayers benefitted from nearly half a billion dollars in rebates to federal entities whose employees made official purchases.
“Price controls have never worked. They generate changes to the market that cause shortages almost immediately. The impact on affordability will be no different than the last time Congress interfered with interchange mechanics,” Aiello said. “At a time when credit card balances are at an all time high and Americans can ill-afford further squeezes to their spending power, this move will seriously harm the American people.”
President Trump and Congress should instead focus attention on improving affordability for taxpayers by unleashing the private sector from crushing government regulations and taxes.
“Their work on taxes and energy is why so many other staples are less expensive than the last administration. The path forward should contain fewer regulations, rules, and taxes for consumers and businesses, not new mandates on businesses and their customers,” Aiello said.
National Taxpayers Union was an early and vocal opponent of the first Durbin Amendment aimed at debit cards, outlining several consumer and taxpayer interests in the issues surrounding interchange and routing.
“Markets can establish a price for secure card payment networks with the benefits consumers want far more efficiently than the government ever could,” Aiello said.
National Taxpayers Union is the only free-market organization for taxpayers that unites effective advocacy with useful research about how to limit taxes, spending, and regulation at every level and branch of government—state, federal, administrative, and judicial.