Two top Democratic senators are calling on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to explain why it sued to block the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s $8 credit card late fee rule, a case they say is “outrageous” and puts the interests of big banks over the group’s rank and file.
In a letter dated Sunday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., ripped into the Chamber for challenging the CFPB’s late fee rule and asked it to respond to questions about what they call its “outrageous and unwarranted” move to take the agency to court.
Those questions seek information about, among other things, how the Chamber arrived at the decision to sue, how it is paying for the suit and how the challenged rule could affect different parts of its membership. The letter requests answers by April 29.
“We are deeply concerned by the Chamber’s lawsuit to prevent the CFPB’s rule from taking effect,” the two lawmakers said in the letter, which was addressed to the Chamber’s President and CEO Suzanne P. Clark.
“The Chamber owes the American public an explanation for its opposition to this rule and its defense of deeply exploitative late fee practices that harms consumers,” they added.
The Chamber, which is the largest U.S. business lobbying group, led a coalition of trade organizations in suing the CFPB in Texas federal court last month over the agency’s rule, which had just been finalized two days earlier in a bid to curb what the CFPB has described as “excessive” credit card late fees.
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