Press Conference with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY)

Press Conference

PRESS CONFERENCE WITH SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE NANCY PELOSI AND REP. CAROLYN B. MALONEY (D-NY)

SUBJECT: CREDIT CARDHOLDERS' BILL OF RIGHTS (H.R. 627); H1N1 FLU ALSO PARTICIPATING: MOLLY GORDY, A CREDIT-CARD HOLDER

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SPEAKER PELOSI: Good morning.

Q Morning.

Q Morning.

SPEAKER PELOSI: Today I'm joined by Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney of the Joint Economic Committee and our special guest Molly Gordy to talk about legislation that is on the floor today, the Credit Cardholder -- Bill of Rights.

Before we get into that, though, however, I want to address the issue of the flu. This is on the forefront of everyone's thinking in our country. I can tell you, as a mother and as a grandmother personally, and officially as the speaker of the House, this is an issue of the highest concern to all of us. The Obama administration, building on the work of the Bush administration, has been able to act swiftly to put us in the best position to respond to the possible pandemic -- hopefully not that.

But we in the Congress have been briefed by the administration on a regular basis, both the -- I, as speaker, early, as soon as the news came of it, but the members this week and the staff this week, as well, of the Capitol.

The mission that we have all for each other is to use common sense; to not come to work or go to school if you are sick; to use a tissue if you are going to sneeze and also to, again, use common sense as to -- I'm a big wash-your-hands person. As you can imagine, with five children and now all these grandchildren -- (chuckles) -- wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands. It's good for, again, a common-sense measure for everything. But we have to say: Stay home if you're sick, cover up if you sneeze, and wash your hands on an ongoing basis and just use common sense in whatever else you are doing.

But again, the administration has kept us briefed. And in briefing us, they have said this can change on a 48-hour period. The situation may change, so briefings are on the ongoing.

As far as the Capitol is concerned, those who are in charge of the Capitol in this respect -- the Physician's Office and the Office of Emergency Services and others -- have protocols on how to deal with this issue, in anticipation and prevention and reacting to it.

So again, the president commended President Bush for -- the Bush administration's initiatives in this way. They have made us better prepared as we go forward. President Obama himself and Congresswoman Nita Lowey in the House were the initiators of legislation in that regard as well, and I thank them both for their leadership in the Congress, and now the president in the White House.

Each week, I say to my members we have to put one good week in front of another, in order to meet the needs of the American people. I'm especially proud, now with a Democratic majority and a president in the White House, that we've been able to not only put good weeks in front of another in advancing our causes, but in passing them into law, improving public policy and making a difference in the lives of the American people.

You've heard me go over it over and over again, how each week since the beginning of the Congress, January 6th, we have passed legislation to do just that: improve the lives of the American people. I won't go over each one of the pieces of legislation again -- unless you want me to -- but I will say once again that overall this legislation represents the most sweeping investments in health care since Medicare -- that's in decades; the most -- the biggest investments in education since the G.I. Bill, and even more than that -- and that's in generations; and, with no contest, the biggest investments ever in energy: the three pillars of the president's budget.

This week, we're so pleased that we were able to pass that budget, which lowers taxes, reduces the deficit and creates jobs, does so in a fiscally sound way, as I mentioned, reduces the deficit, and a transparent way, and again establishing the three pillars of education, health care and energy. And on those three areas, we will be preceding. And hopefully we will be able to do so in a bipartisan way.

As I said, this week, we passed that budget finally, in the House and Senate, the final product. This week, we also in the House passed a hate crimes bill with a big, strong majority. And I'm proud of that.

And today, as a matter of fact, yesterday, we began debate. Today, we will vote on very important legislation for America's consumers -- I referenced it earlier -- the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights.

This is legislation that's being brought to the floor under the leadership of Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney of New York. Simply put, without her leadership, her doggedness, her determination, her persistence, her dissatisfaction, her relentlessness, this legislation would not be on the floor.

She has been -- well, we did bring it to the floor once. But it would not have the prospect of becoming law, as it does now that we have a president who will sign it.

For years, she has been working on this. And quite frankly the need is even greater now. She and I are very pleased that we have a special guest, Molly Gordy, with us. I'm now going to yield -- in recognition of her leadership and congratulations for her success and gratitude for what she's doing, for America's consumers -- to Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney of New York.

REP. MALONEY: Thank you very much, Madame Speaker.

Today, on the 101st day of President Obama's administration, and under the leadership of our great speaker, we in the House will finally pass the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights, which will provide consumers protection from consumer fraud and deception.

This bill will help level the playing field, between the credit card issuers and consumers. And a contract with the credit card companies is probably the only one in the world where you can change the terms, any time, any reason. And this bill will ban some of the most outrageous abuses, such as raising interest rates retroactively on existing balances.

This bill will provide 45 days' notice, if they are going to raise an interest rate going forward, so that consumers can move to another card, putting more competition into the system, advance double-cycle billing, where they're charging interest rates on balances that have already been paid.

It stops many of the tricks and traps of changing the terms and changing the due dates that trap consumers. And very importantly it stops the anytime, any reason, the unrelated activity, which they then say cause a rate increase. And it will help many, many consumers, such as Molly Gordy.

Molly has been a model consumer, paying her bills on time, not going over her limit, yet her interest rate was raised. Regrettably, everybody has a credit-card story everywhere I go. I can't even go to the floor of Congress without hearing credit-card stories similar to Molly's.

So this bill is truly needed. The Federal Reserve in December came out with a rule that mirrored our bill. They got 66,000 comments in support of it, the most of any rule change they have ever made. And they called -- this is the Federal Reserve, this is not the Democratic leadership -- they called these practices unfair, deceptive and anti-competitive.

Last year we passed it with 312 votes to 112, with 84 Republicans voting with us. I hope we will increase that margin. It has been endorsed by 54 major editorial boards from across the country and endorsed by every single consumer group and many civil-rights groups that have made it a top priority for their grassroots efforts this year.

And it is -- it's especially important given the downturn in our economy. Many families are turning to their credit cards because they've lost their jobs. Therefore, it is very important that we enact this to stop unfair and deceptive practices and give tools to consumers during these -- this troubled times to better manage their finances.

And I'm very pleased that a fellow New Yorker and Manhattanite is here with us. Molly Gordy, thank you.

MS. GORDY: Thank you, Congresswoman. And thank you for your fine work on this issue.

My name is Molly Gordy, and Congresswoman Maloney asked me to come from New York today after seeing my credit-card story in The New York Times. I am a working mom from New York. My story isn't that different from millions of other Americans'.

I had a card that I pay regularly and on time. But somewhere along the line they raised my interest rate from 12 to 13 percent with no explanation, and I never noticed. Then a few weeks ago, I received a notice from my card company that the interest rate on the card I've held for more than a decade would increase from 13 percent to 19 percent on my existing balance as well as on new purchases. That I noticed.

I admit that, like a lot of Americans, I do carry a revolving balance. But I have been diligent in paying my bills. I pay as much as possible every month, significantly more than the minimum, and it has been more than three years since I have been late on paying any credit-card bill.

I called and yelled at the company and asked them, why are they doing this? This is not what I signed on for. The customer-service representative told me it's because of the tough economy. That made me really mad, because when I lost my job a few years back, they didn't lower my rate. The credit-card company never did roll back the interest-rate hike that they'd slipped by me, but because I yelled at them, they agreed not to increase the rate on my current balance to 19 percent.

Now, here's my favorite part of this story.

A week after this happened to me, I got a letter from another division of the same company offering me a new credit card at zero percent interest on balance transfers for the next (16/60 ?) months. I had to laugh. While one part of the company is telling me there's no money to lend to me as an existing customer, another part is offering me free lending as a new customer. In my world, we call that bait and switch.

As Representative Maloney says, a deal is a deal. If I make a contract with someone, they should not be able to change it just because they can.

Thank you.

SPEAKER PELOSI: Thank you very much.

Both Molly and Congresswoman Maloney referenced changing the rate for no reason and then using, in the case of Molly, the excuse of the economy to say that the rates have to go up. Well, in some of the testimony on this legislation in the Congress, they used if you lose your job that's reason to increase your rate. It's stunning, the brazenness of it all.

Pleased to take any questions you may have on this subject. Yes, ma'am?

Q You opened with a flu comment, so I have a question --

SPEAKER PELOSI: You know what? Here's what I'd like to do. I'd be happy to come back to that, but since our guests are here, if we can just take any questions you have on credit cards, and then we'll go to that. Okay?

Q Madame Speaker?

SPEAKER PELOSI: On credit cards?

Q On credit cards. What kind of margin -- I assume you expect it to pass in the House. What kind of margin do you expect to get? And what does Harry Reid tell you about the prospects on the Senate side?

SPEAKER PELOSI: (To Representative Maloney) Do you want to speak to that?

REP. MALONEY: Last year we had a very heavy vote, 312-112, with 84 Republicans voting with us. Last year we had two Republicans voting with us when the bill moved out of committee. This year we have nine Republicans voting with us. I assume that we will have -- increase this margin. It will be a strong vote in support of fairness and consumers.

And with the leadership of President Obama -- President Obama has been deeply involved with the bill. He introduced a bill, a different type of bill, rating credit card companies when he was a senator. And throughout the stump, when he was campaigning, he really pushed credit card reforms.

And when he called his meeting last week with the credit card executives, I started getting phone calls that the president's going to fold. I said, "I don't think so. I think he's going to say the same thing he said from the stump, that these abuses need to stop." He's been strong. In fact, he came back with five amendments, which we are bringing to the floor, that I'm sure will pass, that make the bill even better and stronger.

I saw him two days ago at the White House when the Progressive Caucus was there for a meeting. And he came up and said: We are going to get this done. We're going to sign this into law. It's my personal hope that we do it before Memorial Day. With the new changes in the Senate and with the commitment of Senator Dodd, who has passed a bill out of his committee, I am hopeful that it will move and that this relief will be there for the streets of America. We've done a great deal to help the financial institutions, as well we should, to help them get lending and our economy moving. We have to do everything we can to help everyone else the streets of America, Main Street.

They're suffering. They have many challenges. And this will help them control their credit, set their own limits, and also give them more money to put back into the economy, because the money won't be going to the fees; it'll be in their hands to spend and help our economy.

SPEAKER PELOSI: As far as the Senate is concerned, we believe that the big vote in the House will create even bigger momentum as we go to the Senate. The difference between last year and this year is that everybody knows the bill will be signed. So people are more willing -- perhaps some who might have been reluctant -- more willing to vote for it, knowing it will become the law. And hopefully that, again, under the leadership of Senator Chris Dodd -- this is a very high priority for him. He has been a champion on this issue for a very long time. We believe that -- I don't know what the date will be, but very soon this will be the law of the land, and consumers will benefit.

Yes, sir?

Q How does this go beyond the Fed rules? Can you explain in lay terms the difference between the Fed -- what the Fed did and what you're doing?

REP. MALONEY: The Fed rule really attacked some of the most abusive practices and the "any time, any reason" retroactive rate increases, notice going forward, but it mirrored my bill. They basically mirrored the bill.

It -- this one gives more tools to the consumer to set their limits, so that they won't go over their limits. There's an amendment on the floor today that says for any over-the-limit fees you have to opt into it and say you want that service.

There is an expansion to protect young people in colleges. If -- you can only get $500 or 20 percent of your income, so that the -- many abusive practices towards marketing to young people in colleges are there.

It stops something that is very annoying to many of my constituents, where they get a card and they immediately put it on their -- you know, the credit rating information that then brings down their credit scores. It does not go on your credit rating, your credit card, unless you activate it and use that card. And it has a number of improvements in it, but the basic core and principle of leveling the playing field between the issuers and the card holders is the Fed rule.

Q I wondered, before the day is out, if we could get a sheet explaining those differences.

REP. MALONEY: You can go to my website and it's there, or you can call my office, and we'll get it to you.

SPEAKER PELOSI: Website is.

REP. MALONEY: Carolynmaloney@house.gov.

(Cross talk.)

Maloney.house.gov.

SPEAKER PELOSI: If I might say, one of the items on the array of differences that Congresswoman Maloney mentioned was the opt-in. You know, for years, the credit-card companies would only, if they were interested at all, be interested in an opt-out.

So you had to opt out, in order to not have to be subjected to those changes. Now opt-in is a very, very big difference. And they'll be hard at work trying to water it down and the rest. Make no mistake.

So this isn't over. But the momentum, and again Congresswoman Maloney mentioned an array of organizations, consumer groups, et cetera, who support this. Ninety percent of the American people, when asked, support this. I don't know about the other 10 percent. I don't know what they're thinking. (Laughs.) But whatever it is, 90 percent. That's more than almost any other subject you can measure.

But in any event, with that momentum, the public support, the overwhelming support of the public, as I said, an overwhelming vote of this Congress of the United States, I feel quite certain that it will have a sufficient number of votes, in the Senate, to pass and go to the president's desk.

Any other questions on this subject?

I want to again acknowledge the extraordinary leadership of Chairwoman --

REP. MALONEY: I just have to say, Madame Speaker, that this is a very thrilling day for me, because I feel that this will give a baseline of really very necessary protections and fairness to the consumers of America. And it would not have happened without a Democratic Congress and a Democratic president. So I am absolutely thrilled that this reform, this help, this fairness is coming to the American public.

Thank you, Madame Speaker, for your leadership, for making it a priority and for moving it to the floor. Thank you.

SPEAKER PELOSI: Thank you, Carolyn.

Thank you, Molly Gordy, for being with us.

MS. GORDY: Thank you.

SPEAKER PELOSI: We're honored you're here. Thank you.

A very good day and a very good week.

(Cross talk.)

We have a question on the flu.

Q Madame Speaker, you mentioned the flu, possible pandemic. I'm wondering what your reaction is to Vice President Biden's reported comments, advising his own family not to travel, be in confined spaces, take the subway.

Is that good leadership by example, in terms of the consumer confidence in travel, with the economy being in such -- the state that it is?

SPEAKER PELOSI: Well, I did not actually see the TV, like it says on TV this morning, from Vice President Biden. But I did see the statement put out by the administration about taking a common-sense approach to all of this, which is the -- use common sense in terms of your own physical situation as to whether you travel, whether you go to work or send your children to school and how you deal with personal signs of -- say, sneezing and the rest; not signs of a flu, but signs of -- that could be contagious.

But I do think the administration has been exemplary in how they have gone forward with this. They moved with -- before most of us even knew that the subject had arisen, they were out there. Before most people in our country knew, they had already had a plan of action. Again, a tribute to the previous administration, as well, for having certain structures in place.

They informed us right away of the travel advisory to Mexico, of the 50 million courses of antiviral that are available, that 25 percent of them would be made available to the states to be distributed, and then other briefings that we have had to be up to date on it on a regular basis.

So I feel pretty comfortable -- that, again, as a mom and a grandmother. I have my own habits, shall we say, that I've tried to convey to my children now that they are parents, as well. And I think that all of it fits very comfortably under the leadership of the Obama administration.

Q If I could follow up, please? Are you advising your own family not to travel?

SPEAKER PELOSI: No. As a matter of fact, I have -- not only am I not advising them not to travel; I'm advising them -- they live -- three of my grandchildren and their families live in Houston. I have grandchildren in Houston, in California, in Arizona and New York. And so I'm not saying to them, you know, let's all go someplace together, no. They are living their lives and, again, practicing common sense, good practices. And so it's not a question of not encouraging -- not to travel. It's also a question of encouraging them not to leave home because -- just because their states, Texas, California -- I'm not absolutely certain about Arizona, but I know New York, are three of the states that are the most, shall we say, suspicious in this case.

Q Madame Speaker? Madame Speaker --

Q How does the --

(Cross talk.)

SPEAKER PELOSI: Wait, wait. One more question. Who hasn't -- we had a return of the Williamsburg Rule, where we had people who didn't ask a question at a previous press conference, because we can't always have everyone the same.

Yes, dear, you had your hand up.

Q Yes. This week, the general counsel of the House sent a letter to the attorney general --

SPEAKER PELOSI: Yes.

Q -- at your urging, asking him to set up a protocol, or resume talks on a protocol for wiretapping and these raids on offices.

Does this reflect your dissatisfaction that there aren't protections and safeguards in place for members on wiretapping? And --

SPEAKER PELOSI: Well, in the previous administration, as you may recall, there was an incident where the executive branch I think took extraordinary measures to gain accents -- access to a member's office. We made clear at the time that no member of Congress can use the speech-and-debate clause to conceal information that is important in any investigation that does not relate to speech and debate.

Having said that, though, we thought, in a bipartisan way, working with then-Speaker Hastert, that it was -- now we're going back a few years -- it was -- we needed protocols in place so that everybody understood the prerogatives of the executive branch and the prerogatives of the legislative branch.

Those conversations continued. There were some lawsuits and everything that -- along the way that increased the leverage of the -- of the legislative branch. But we really did not resolve the issue. But whether it's invading an office or wiretapping a conversation, it's important for us to have the separation of powers and the respect for individual liberties, again, while not harboring information that is -- would be useful under the speech-and-debate clause.

And so we think that that is possible to do. We were making some progress in the previous administration, and now we have a new president, and we hope we can get that resolved.

Q Did the Harman incident spur this letter?

SPEAKER PELOSI: No, no, no. This has been in the works for a while. The -- it became more interesting to you in light of that, but this is something that we put into motion. It's -- you have to deal with it very carefully, because you want to respect the right of every person involved, but you also want to make sure that the speech-and- debate clause is honored and also that the law of the land is obeyed and respected.

So this has been in the works for a while. The release of the letter is really just timely because it seems a -- it's more of a coincidence than a cause-and-effect.

Thank you all very much.

Q One more?

Q Thank you.

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