Credit Card Companies Pushing Back Against Udall’s Reform Bill

As many Americans can now attest, the way in which credit card companies have conducted their business for years crosses the ethical line of right and wrong.  Largely empowered by the Cons, but not without help from ConservaDems, credit card companies have introduced a byzantine set of rules and policies with one goal in mind: maximize the amount of money they can charge Americans.  Regulations and oversight fell by the wayside as the companies’ actions grew more bold and odious.  The Fed announced back in December some rules that would clamp down on some of the banks’ activities.  I still find it absurd that they don’t take effect until mid-2010.  Americans are needlessly suffering under the banks’ unfair practices today.  They need relief today.

The good news is there are some politicians in Washington who have heard their citizens’ cry for action.  When he was still a Representative, Mark Udall (D-CO-02) supported the House’s Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights, one of the few pieces of legislation that Democrats named intelligently.  Who wouldn’t be for a cardholder’s Bill of Rights?  Certainly not the rights-loving Republicans, right?  Not so much.  112 Republicons voted against the bill in the House and the legislation died in the Senate, due to Republicon obstructionism.  A Colorado Independent article notes that now-Sen. Mark Udall plans on continuing to stand up for the morally right thing.  I’ve criticized Mark when I thought I needed to.  In this case, I heartily applaud his stance and actions.  They clearly need to be publicized so that others can do the same.

I’ll be honest – I don’t remember Rep. Udall’s support of this bill last year.  In any event, I read about it today and it struck a chord.  Following a link from the CI article, Sen. Udall’s website has the following information:

The Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights:
• Protects cardholders against arbitrary interest rate increases
• Prevents cardholders who pay on time from being unfairly penalized
• Protects cardholders from due date gimmicks
• Shields cardholders from misleading terms
• Empowers cardholders to set limits on their credit
• Requires card companies to fairly credit and allocate payments
• Prohibits card companies from imposing excessive fees on cardholders
• Prevents card companies from giving subprime credit cards to people who can’t afford them
• Requires Congress to provide better oversight of the credit card industry
• Contains NO rate caps, fee setting, or price controls

For the wonky among us, this year’s House bill is H.R.627, sponsored by Rep. Maloney (D-NY).  On March 19, the bill had its first hearing in the House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, covered here by creditcards dot com.  The Thomas.loc.gov summary page also says the bill had two markup sessions and was voted out of the subcommittee to the full committee on April 2 (last Thursday).  The corresponding Senate bill is S.235, sponsored by Sen. Schumer (D-NY).  S.235 has been referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.

I will also note that Sens. Dodd (D-CT.), who chairs the Banking Committee, and Levin (D-MI) also have a credit card bill introduced, the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act (Credit CARD Act – get it?  see what I mean about the need to name bills better?).  S. 392 has been referred to committee.  The CI characterizes S.392 as going further than S.235/HR627.  Not having delved into the details of either bill, I’m not going to offer an opinion other than to point out that H.R.627/S.235 would become law 90 days after signing.  The banks are already crying about the rapidity of enactment, to which I don’t have a lot of sympathy.  Banks have done pretty much what they wanted for 20-some years now.  Reform can’t come soon enough.

McCain’s Bad Water Policy, Bob Schaffer’s Oil Problems, Marilyn Musgrave’s Oil Problems

Does John McCain want Arizona and California to have more access to Colorado River water, leaving other western states without?  He’ll have to contend with millions of Colorado voters to get anywhere near such a policy.  My hunch is Coloradans won’t like the idea too much.

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Bob Schaffer, perpetually trailing Rep. Mark Udall in polling throughout the cycle, continues to desperately search for anything that might decrease Udall’s chances.  The latest charge: Udall wants to increase the gas tax by 50 cents per gallon.  It’s untrue, of course, but when you’re behind, you attack your opponent.

Bob Schaffer had the gall to tell reporters after their 2nd debate that oil corporations have a small margin of profit.  Raise your hand if you think they should get a larger margin becuase Schaffer is arguing that $11.68 billion in just three months is too small.

Mark Udall, in contrast, wants to stop the corporate welfare going to Exxon and others and instead provide money for renewable energy ventures so we can end our dependence on fossil fuels.  Which is only one reason why Udall continues to hold a lead in the Colorado Senate race.

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Marilyn Musgrave thinks her record and efforts to lower the price of gas for families in Colorado should help get her reelected this year.  That’s a novel approach because since her first election, gas prices have increased from $1.50 per gallon to over $4.00 per gallon this year.  What exactly has she down to lower prices?  Billions of dollars in corporate welfare to oil corporations didn’t work.  Invading and occupying a major oil supplier didn’t work.  Voting against every pro-renewable energy bill and amendment didn’t work.  Enough already, Marilyn.  You haven’t represented your constituents for years.  It’s time for Betsy Markey.

Udall Responds to Pine Beetle Legislation Question

A while back (April), I emailed Rep. Mark Udall’s office regarding two pieces of legislation: H.R. 5216 and 5218. I wanted to know the status of the bills, which were introduced to Committees way back in January. Both bills deal with expanding resources in order to deal with the millions of acres of trees killed by the mountain pine beetle. I have received a response from Rep. Udall and am reproducing it below:

Thank you for asking about bills I have introduced to respond to problems in Colorado’s forest caused by bark beetles and other insects. I appreciate hearing from you and apologize for my delay in responding.

As you noted, both H.R. 5216 (the “Wildfire Risk Reduction and Renewable Biomass Utilization Act”) and H.R. [5218] (the “Fire-Safe Communities Act”) have been referred to the relevant Committees. Regrettably, at this point neither has been scheduled for a hearing or other action. I have been and will continue to seek to have these bills considered, but each of the relevant committees has many pending measures and is also engaged in oversight activities related to other subjects within their jurisdiction.

Working to reduce the danger to Colorado’s communities from severe forest fires has been a priority for me since I was first elected to Congress, and I will continue to work toward that goal.

I will continue to monitor the pine beetle kill problem, including these two bills. I think these pieces of legislation are part of the important fight to mitigate the beetles’ effect.

To: House Dems Who Voted for Telecom Immunity

The modern Republican: defender of the 2nd amendment, with no thought to its conditionality and destroyer of the remainder of Rights, including the 4th amendment. I guess I can see why they’ve spent so much time and energy on the 2nd now. With searches no longer hinging upon probable cause, maybe we all should have guns to defend our property, physical and electronic. The government, purposefully wrecked by Republicans, obviously has no interest in doing so any longer.

Is the House vote the end of the world? Obviously not. I’m angry the vote happened the way it did. Just as Pelosi and Hoyer learned that they needed to quickly schedule this vote to avoid hearing from constituents, activists will learn from this event as well. There are other things need attention too. FISA is definitely important, but only one facet of a larger war going on. Longer-term goals need to be established, fought for, monitored, and “audited”. I’m going to transform my emotions on this vote into continued action to make a difference. It’s what got me started as an activist and maintaining that drive to improve my country will be fed by this capitulation. As part of this, I’m no longer going to use an AT&T/Cingular cell phone. They charge too much and now I know where all that extra money is going. Instead, I’m going to do business with CREDO mobile. They didn’t lobby Congress to absolve telecoms of admitted lawbreaking. It’s an easy choice.

The fact that FISA isn’t the only story we should are about doesn’t mean we should be quiet and simply accept blatant political maneuvering. I think back to my participation in a Politics West roundtable: when Dems do something I consider wrong, I will not hold back my criticism of those actions. As a Dem, I expect more from other Dems than I do of Republicans. I’ve written before about the role of elected officials: they are our employees. Any time an employer gives an employee a task or project and the employee doesn’t perform to the employer’s standard, it is the responsibility of the employer to do something about it. And do something we must. Displeasure left uncommunicated festers and destroys relationships. We have the opportunity to let those officials know how we feel about their performance. Take it.

Republicans Want to Open West, Coastal Areas to Drilling; AP Coverage Misses Mark

By this point, President Bush’s announcement that he wants the oil shale development moratorium repealed, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and off-shore drilling opened up for oil and gas drilling should be well known. But is it well known for the correct reasons? Is the media focused on the true aspects of this issue or are they caught up once again in ridiculous tiff reporting?

Allow me to provide a short answer to the second question: the media has reported on the “he-said, she-said” side of the issue more than the details of it. No one should be surprised. After all, the AP seems to be more worried about how much quoting of one of their articles by blogs constitutes fair-use, even though it’s not in their purview to decide such things. Perhaps if they spent more time on actually reporting, bloggers wouldn’t have to quote the one or two salient facts they actually managed to write down and then do the hard work of providing the context the corporate media decided wasn’t sexy enough to include in the first place.

A longer answer to the questions raised above can be found below the fold.

Roan Plateau Update: BLM Schedules Auction

55,000 acres could be opened up for auction to oil and gas companies, as assigned by the Bureau of Land Management. Approximately 34,000 acres are on top of the plateau, identified as sensitive areas for wildlife.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which will offer the leases in an Aug. 14 auction in Denver, has said that efforts by Sen. Ken Salazar and Reps. Mark Udall and John Salazar to modify the management plan for the Roan Plateau wouldn’t stop the agency from offering the leases.

Every community level, from the smallest town to the entire state, Democrat, Undeclared and Republican alike, have all expressed their desire not to allow drilling on top of the Roan. This of course hasn’t stopped the Bush administration and their cronies that have continually ignored the will of the people since they took control of our government.

Rep. Udall said a few months ago that he might introduce federal legislation that would reflect the proposal brought up by Gov. Bill Ritter. It would open up the Roan in phases with some oversight enacted during the entire process. This step might be necessary because the BLM, despite approval of Ritter’s plan by elected officials from both parties, rejected the plan. Sen. Ken Salazar has also said he might introduce similar legislation in the Senate. The BLM has said that news won’t stop the auction. Rep. DeGette introduced the Colorado Wilderness Act in April. It would protect the Roan from this kind of development.

Rep. Udall, Rep. Salazar and Sen. Salazar: this is the time to introduce your legislation and or get on board with Rep. DeGette’s legislation and get it passed. You have two months before the auction starts. The will of the fossil fuel industry is being carried out over the will of the people. This is not acceptable.

Cross-posted at SquareState.net.  There are a large number of diaries written about the Roan over there too.

Climate Security Act in Senate Update 6/5/08

The Climate Security Act, S.2191 is being held up by Republicans who, get this, are saying it will cost too much and people’s wallets will be hurt if passed and gosh we’re really not sure what the science is regarding climate change and…

In an extremely childish maneuver, Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) had Senate staffers read the entire 400+ page bill read aloud. Nothing else could occur – debate or voting or anything else until the entire bill’s reading was finished. This procedure is really never done in Congress. Of all the things facing our country and the work that President Bush says is oh so urgent, Senate Republicans decided that reading 400 pages of a bill was the best use of the Senate’s time. What was it all over? Republicans said three judicial nominations still haven’t been considered and were throwing a temper tantrum over it. Despite refusing to consider dozens of President Clinton’s nominees in the 1990s, despite already being in the minority and despite facing additional losses at the ballot box this year, Republicans are still obstructing Senate proceedings. Obviously losing seats in 2006 didn’t faze them. Losing more, and hopefully not even having 40 seats next year will compel them to do their part to make our government function. By the way, McConnell is one of those running for reelection this November. The most recent polling put him behind his Democratic opponent 49%-44%. I wonder why…

Colorado’s Sen. Allard said he was concerned about the science.

The last few years may have cooled a fraction of degree….

Back in the 1950s … Ice Age … blah, blah, … It was warmer in the year 1000 than it is right now … natural cycles … sunspots …

I really wish he was running for his seat again. I wanted to see him beat by a landslide so bad. That’s alright, his retirement and the corrupt Bob Schaffer’s imminent loss will be just fine. Sending a person like Rep. Mark Udall, who actually understands science, to the Senate will improve things next year.

Pine Beetle Update

As a resident of the Mountain West, I’ve seen first-hand the effects of mountain pine beetles (Dendroctonus ponderosae) in forests.* Areas of formerly dark green pine trees turned rust red. Those areas have gotten larger quickly over the past few years due to lack of sustained cold temperatures during our winters. Identifying human-influenced climate change as the cause is not a stretch, it’s widely accepted by scientists.

There is now mounting evidence that the hundreds of thousands of acres of dead trees in Colorado, and many more beyond the state’s borders, will cause those forests to change from carbon sinks to carbon sources. A little background: healthy forests act as giant reservoirs (sinks) of carbon dioxide. The trees absorb CO2 during their respiration and production of chlorophyll. The difference now is as these trees die by the millions, all that stored carbon will be released back into the atmosphere. An atmosphere that, as mentioned above, humans have been busy injecting CO2 and other greenhouse gases during the trees’ life spans.

Overall, that situation doesn’t sound very good. It gets a little bit scarier when one realizes that computer climate models haven’t been programmed to take this process into account yet. Activists have been proposing for some time now that high latitude forests could be protected and expanded to help trap some of the atmospheric CO2. It now appears that those forests are falling to the effects of already induced climate change. And let’s be honest: the climate changes we’ve seen so far haven’t been catastrophic. Scientists are noting smaller-scale changes around the world: large ice shelf collapses, record Arctic ice melt, etc. Those forests cannot be counted on as people had hoped in the future, at least not until we control our GHG emissions and decrease the GHG concentrations in the atmosphere.

I began covering this problem with an eye toward some solutions. Rep. Mark Udall (D-CO02) introduced a couple of bills dealing with the mountain pine beetle kill back in January: