Battle Lines Harden Over a Proposed CCCA Amendment to the GENIUS Act

The Teamsters Union, along with labor unions in the retail and food-service sectors, sent a letter to Congress Wednesday supporting the Durbin Marhsall Amendment to the GENIUS Act, a bill to regulate stablecoins.

The endorsement is the latest salvo in the ongoing battle over the Credit Card Competition Act, which was reintroduced earlier this year as the Durbin Marshall Amendment. Airlines, airline unions, and commercial-aircraft manufacturers sent a letter to Congress Monday opposing attachment of the Durbin Marhsall amendment to the GENIUS Act.

In their letter, the Teamsters and other unions contend passage of Durbin Marshall will help low-to-moderate-income consumers by reducing credit card swipe fees, the savings from which merchants would pass along to consumers. “We embrace the Credit Card Competition Act as a means to return more buying power to hard-working Americans by curbing the outrageous rise in fees charged by Visa and Mastercard to merchants in the United States,” the letter says.

In addition to the Teamsters, the Retail, Wholesale, Department Store Union, the Service Employees International Union, and the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union signed the letter. The four unions collectively represent 4.5 million members.

“Labor’s position is very clear here, some of the largest unions in the country support the CCCA,” says Doug Kantor, an executive committee member for the Merchants Payments Coalition and general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores. “While there are unions that do not support the amendment, they are tiny in comparison.”

The unions conclude their letter by saying they look forward to supporting the Durbin Marshall Amendment with “an understanding that as merchants report savings from a more competitive and lower swipe-fee market, they are committing to translating that into direct savings for consumers and increased wages for our members.”

While the teamsters and other large labor unions have thrown their support behind Durbin Marshall, the Electronic Payments Coalition counters many unions oppose the Amendment. These unions include the Allied Pilots Association, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, the Regional Airline Association, Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, and the Transport Workers Union of America, all of which signed the letter sent to Congress opposing Durbin Marhsall.

“The fact is there are plenty of unions that opposed Durbin Marhsall,” an EPC spokesperson says.

While organized labor has been staking out its position on the amendment, co-sponsor Roger Marshall said in an interview on Fox Business earlier this week he believes the amendment strengthens the GENIUS Act and will help it “net four or five more votes” for passage of the bill, which President Trump supports.

Marshall added the amendment will help lower inflation as card swipe fees are “an inflation multiplier.”

“America pays four to five times more [in swipe fees] than anybody else in the world does and these fees are passed on to Americans,” Marshall said. “All we’re doing is promoting competition. This is going to level the playing field, bring down the processing fees. This is a bill that’s going to help Main Street, not Wall Street. It’s going to help hardworking Americans.”

Despite Marchall’s claim that attaching the CCCA to the GENIUS Act will improve its chances of passage, the EPC counters opposition in Congress to the Amendment remains strong. The EPC cites statements from several legislative leaders, including Visa President J.D. Vance, who reportedly has called for swift passage of a “clean GENIUS Act” and House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill, who reportedly said the Durbin Marhsall Amendment “really has not gone through the process in either chamber, meaning regular order, it has not been subject to committee hearings or markups, and a debate in the committee, or a debate in either chamber’s floor. So, members are really reluctant to see an idea like that parachute some must-pass piece of legislation. As a committee Chairman, that is not happening under my watch, to let something be parachuted into a bill.”

Adds the EPC spokesperson: “There are legislators that will flip their vote on the Genius ACT because Durbin Marshall does not belong as an attachment. That makes it a negative to the to the final vote count and a poison pill.”