The following content is sponsored by the Electronic Payments Coalition.
Every year tens of millions of Americans take flights to visit family or go on a quick vacation. And frequent flyer points help fund many of these trips.
These valuable programs, however, might be a thing of the past.
Sens. Dick Durbin and Roger Marshall have spent months trying to push their credit card bill in Congress. If Durbin and Marshall’s bill were to pass, the way your credit card works and the way your rewards programs work would be dramatically changed – and potentially disappear the same way debit card reward programs disappeared when similar mandates were put on your debit card.
This is why so many people are speaking out against the bill. But Sens. Durbin and Marshall are trying to silence them by employing the federal government to target their opponents, including the airline industry.
A recent study from Airlines for America (A4A) came out against the Durbin-Marshall bill, citing the significant harm the legislation would cause to the travel and tourism industry and the U.S. economy at large.
Nearly 30 million Americans rely on airline-affiliated cards to accrue credit card rewards and loyalty points.
Without the offering of these perks, many Americans would lose the ability to afford additional travel – a loss that would come as a devastating blow to the American economy.
A4A estimates that airline credit cards paid for fifteen million domestic visitor trips, which adds up to $23 billion of economic activity for the year 2022 alone.
With the loss of airline credit cards, the travel and tourism industry would take a $23 billion hit. This would lead to the loss of thousands of jobs. Cities and states that thrive on tourism would suffer. The last thing our country’s economy needs is a hit to a trillion-dollar industry.
Knowing the detrimental effects of this bill, the airline industry has consistently opposed it. This opposition has now escalated Durbin and Marshall to incite a witch hunt against the airline industry.
After the industry and airline unions spoke out against Durbin and Marshall’s abysmal credit card bill, the lawmakers pressed the Transportation Department and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to monitor the airline industry’s alleged “deceptive practices in airlines’ frequent flyer and loyalty programs.”
With a side of irony, Sen. Marshall did this just a few years after cosponsoring the Don’t Weaponize the IRS Act.
The reality is this: the passage of this legislation will benefit large retailers like Target and Walmart, but will harm everyday Americans, the economy, and jobs in the travel and tourism industry. Why even consider legislation that would cause such mass economic devastation?
Americans cannot afford to lose their hard-earned rewards. And those who speak out against flawed legislation cannot – and should not – fear retaliation from the federal government simply for speaking their mind.
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