Bills to cap credit card interest rates languish in Congress

As he sought to recapture the White House in 2024, Donald Trump promised to "put a temporary cap on credit card interest rates at 10%." During his presidency, bipartisan lawmakers have introduced bills to cap credit card interest rates, but they've failed to advance.

Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., offered legislation to cap credit card rates for five years at the same 10% level that Trump promised. 

"When large financial institutions charge over 25 percent interest on credit cards, they are not engaged in the business of making credit available," Sanders said when announcing the bill Feb. 4. "They are engaged in extortion and loan sharking. We cannot continue to allow big banks to make huge profits ripping off the American people."

Hawley said Americans are "drowning" in credit card debt "while the biggest credit card issuers get richer and richer by hiking their interest rates to the moon. It's not just wrong, it's exploitative. And it needs to end."

In the House, Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., offered companion legislation.

Both efforts have lagged. The Senate bill has attracted one additional cosponsor — Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore. — and the House bill hasn't attracted any. Neither has made progress in committees.

Hawley attempted to attach the text of the credit card rate cap legislation to another bill — the GENIUS Act, which primarily addressed cryptocurrency regulation — but his amendment didn't make it into the final bill before the full measure passed, 68-30, on June 17.

One possible factor these bills have languished: Trump has not weighed in on the bipartisan credit card interest rate bills recently, despite championing other campaign promises like ending taxation of tips, overtime pay and Social Security benefits that made it into his signature tax legislation. According to the Factbase archive of presidential speeches and remarks, the last time Trump has referenced "credit card interest rates" was at a campaign rally in Wisconsin in October 2024.

The credit card rate cap lost out on a promising pathway to enactment when it failed to be included in Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill," which he signed July 4. This, combined with its failure to advance in both chambers so far, leaves his promise Stalled.

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