DCUC Launches Targeted Campaign: Opposing Durbin-Marshall Amendments to 2025 NDAA

Defense Credit Union Council (DCUC) has launched a targeted digital advertising campaign to highlight the risks and concerns of adding Senator Dick Durbin’s (D-IL) and Senator Roger Marshall’s (R-KS) proposed Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA) language to the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

DCUC’s campaign reaffirms its long-standing position that any CCCA-like amendments jeopardize important defense-related legislation while attempting to enrich the largest multinational retailers at the expense of our Nation’s military and veteran consumers.

The Council has voiced its strong opposition to any CCCA-type legislation for several years, beginning with the "Credit Card Competition Act of 2022," (S. 4674), and later countering additional Amendments 6201 and 6174.

In its October 11, 2022, letter to the Senate, DCUC supported its opposition by calling attention to the lack of monitoring compliance concerning the original 2010 Durbin Amendment with respect to debit cards, referencing a 2014 survey conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. DCUC’s letter highlighted how the survey found a sizable fraction of merchants had raised their prices or imposed restrictions on debit card use to avoid paying debit interchange fees.

This did not stop Senators Durbin and Marshall from continuing their attempts to amend the NDAA with their “Credit Card Competition Act of 2023” (S.1838), and through other “must-pass” legislation (H.R. 3881, and later, #1161 to the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, H.R. 4366).

DCUC promptly responded to these attempts by sending joint trade letters on June 7, 2023, and again, on September 15, 2023, to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and the House Committee on Financial Services. In these letters, the Council emphasized the shared concerns on how CCCA-type legislation will hurt consumers while benefiting big box retailers. DCUC and its joint trade partners explained how the amendments would lead to the removal of a consumer’s choice of preferred card network, wringing out the competitive differences among card products, limit popular credit card rewards programs, and place the nation’s private-sector payments system under the micromanagement of the Federal Reserve Board.

“The Durbin-Marshall bill accomplishes this by using legislation to circumvent the free market to award private-sector contracts to a small handful of the sponsors’ favored payment networks to pad the profits of the largest e-commerce and multi-national retailers who are raising prices on American families far more than the real rate of inflation…Contrary to its sponsors’ misguided claims, the adverse effects of this bill are clear: fewer options for consumers, greater threats to consumer data and privacy, weakened community banks and credit unions, and the disappearance of card rewards programs that families of all income levels use to stretch their budgets.”

Since that time, DCUC has stayed actively engaged and consistently succeeded in its advocacy efforts on this issue. DCUC reaffirmed its position on proposed CCCA-like language to the 2025 NDAA in a July 15, 2024, letter to Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

During the August recess, DCUC’s advertisement campaign will highlight these concerns to constituents in the Rhode Island region, urging them to call on Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) to reject any attempts to include CCCA-type language in the 2025 NDAA once Congress reconvenes.

“DCUC is proud to represent our industry in opposing this language while continuing to protect the financial and personal data of our military members serving around the world,” said Anthony Hernandez, DCUC President/CEO.

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