Serious concerns lurk under surface of loan shark joke
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The growing movement to impose 36 percent interest rate caps on retail installment loans received a rousing endorsement last week from the National Association of Loan Sharks, the preeminent trade association for illegal moneylenders.
Though an April Fools Day joke orchestrated by the American Financial Services Association, the April 1 press release reflects serious industry concerns that interest rate caps restrict financing opportunities for customers on the lower end of the credit spectrum at a vulnerable economic time.
The tongue-in-cheek release highlights how a slate of rate cap legislation could expand opportunities for the fake loan shark association s members.
Introduction
In September 2019, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the “Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act of 2019”,
1 the first stand-alone cannabis legislation to be approved by the House of Representatives. Earlier this month, revised versions of the bill were introduced in the House and Senate “to reform federal cannabis laws and reduce the public safety risk in communities across the country.”
2
Current Status
Representatives Ed Perlmutter (D-CO-7), Nydia Velázquez (D-NY-7), Steve Stivers (R-OH-15), and Warren Davidson (R-OH-8) introduced the “SAFE Banking Act of 2021”
3 on 18 March. To-date, they have recruited an additional 120 co-sponsors, including 16 additional Republicans. In the 116th Congress, the bill had 202 additional co-sponsors, including 25 additional Republicans, and was approved by a vote of 321-103 (including 102 Republicans).
Within 24 hours after news of Gaetz and the federal sex trafficking investigation, House Minority Leader
Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) told
Fox News that while it is too early to judge, he will remove Gaetz from his committee assignments if the allegations are proven true.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
The GOP’s double standard was on full display in February, when McCarthy and all but 11 Republican lawmakers voted against a resolution to remove QAnon conspiracy theorist Rep.
Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments for her racist, antisemitic, Islamophobic and other incendiary statements.
More than 100 national and local trade and business organizations have signed and sent a letter to top lawmakers urging them to extend the PPP deadline
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