RaceTrac and Their Guests Work Together to Defeat Tester Amendment

Atlanta- June 8th, 2011- In a recent vote, the Senate voted 54 in favor and 45 against to defeat Senator Jon Tester’s amendment to delay the implementation of debit swipe fee reform. Senator Tester’s amendment needed to gain 60 votes to pass in order to overcome a filibuster threat from Senator Richard Durbin.

This is a huge victory for retailers in the face of a full court press by the banks, which made delaying or overturning debit swipe fee reform their top legislative priority. Tester’s amendment would have required a six month study of the implications of the Durbin amendment on small banks, followed by an additional six month delay for the Fed to incorporate those implications in its rule. The amendment also would have allowed banks to recover costs of banking not related to debit but all of their “program operations.”

Consumers will also benefit from the Durbin Amendment which will force the card network cartels to innovate, to reduce fraud and to eliminate waste and will allow merchants to pass along the savings from the reduced debit card swipe fees to all their customers. This includes cash customers who've been forced to subsidize Rewards card holders by paying more at the store and more at the pump to offset swipe fee costs merchants currently pass on to them.

RaceTrac wants to send a big, “Thank you” to all of our guests who reached out to their Senators and asked them to vote no on the Tester amendment.