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Three statements from Reform Swipe Fees NOW! national spokesman (and
7-Eleven franchisee) Dennis Lane in:
mp3PRO format
QuickTime
(MPEG-4/AAC) format
Windows Media Audio
9.2 format
(99 seconds total)
(These statements were made at a Capitol Hill rally on Thursday, June 9th.)
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Small businesses across the country with Reform Swipe Fees NOW! applaud members of Congress for standing by a promise made to Main Street businesses and consumers last year--and voting against the Tester-Corker Amendment to delay swipe-fee reform just weeks before critical reforms are scheduled to take effect. By voting "no" on Tester-Corker, Congress has sent a clear message to everyone from Main Street to Wall Street that small businesses will no longer tolerate a broken interchange system that both panders to big banks and unnecessarily burdens small businesses.
For years, the U.S. has been plagued with excessive swipe fees that both hurt merchants and drive up prices for consumers. This resulted in an historic outcry from small-business owners across the country, who met with members of Congress to ask for help. After thorough study and careful consideration, Congress last year took critical steps to repair the system and put important protections in place that would rein in excessive swipe fees for debit-card transactions. As a result, new rules limiting debit-card swipe fees are scheduled to take effect on July 21st.
Over the last 12 months, however, Wall Street has financed an aggressive and misleading campaign to weaken--and essentially undo--this reform. A result of an aggressive and misleading campaign, the Tester-Corker Amendment would have enabled the banks and credit-card companies to do just that.
Defeat of the Tester-Corker Amendment will save small businesses and consumers $33 million per day--equivalent to $1 billion per month, or $13.5 billion each year. When new rules reforming swipe fees are enacted this summer, small-business owners across the U.S. will be able to grow their businesses, offer better pay to employees, and pass savings on to their customers. With new rules scheduled to take effect on July 21st, small-business owners will continue to fight until swipe-fee reform becomes a reality.
