Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I come to the floor to speak about an amendment I have filed along with Senators Schumer and Sanders, amendment No. 3812. The purpose of the amendment is very simple: to protect consumers from being charged unfair and unreasonable fees by ATM machines. How often have you gone to an ATM machine to access your own cash from your own credit union or your own bank and they charge you a couple bucks, $2.50, $2.25, $3, $4? We have seen as high as $5 in parts of the country. I wish to talk about that issue, how unfair it is. In recent years, Congress has acted to protect consumers by setting appropriate limits on the types of fees that financial institutions can charge consumers in areas such as credit cards, and spurred by a good proposal by Chairman Dodd, the Federal Reserve is now considering rules regarding overdraft fees. One area that remains unregulated is the fees consumers pay to use ATMs. Right now there is no limit that the operator of an ATM can charge a consumer for using that machine. Currently, the only regulation in this area--clearly insufficient, I might add--is that the operator must disclose how much they will charge. So when you access an ATM it has to tell you how much they are charging you and you can then refuse to do that, if you want. But this nominal disclosure requirement does nothing to ensure the charges are not arbitrary ways for banks and third-party owners of these machines to make an unreasonable sum on the backs of consumers.…”