OHI’s Capitol Hill fly-in continued this week as OHI’s advocacy team and 17 campground owners and operators representing 26 states across the country turned their focus to the Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA): bipartisan legislation designed to inject competition into the credit card payments market and curb the excessive swipe fees that burden small businesses and consumers nationwide.
The campground owners and operators participating in the fly-in included: Bobbi Jo Beyersdorf, Andrew Confer, Kimberlie Cook, Rafael Correa, Mike Gurevich, Mike Harrison, Chris Houghton, Jeffrey Miller, Jen Molesworth, Jonathan Mueller, Zack Prescott, Cathy Reinard, Kale Streeter, Sean Vidrine, Phil Upton, and Gene Zanger.
The Credit Card Competition Act, bipartisan legislation sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Roger Marshall (KS) and Sen. Dick Durbin (IL), would require the two largest credit card networks (VISA and Mastercard) to offer merchants a choice of at least two unaffiliated processing networks, restoring competition and transparency to a system currently dominated by a handful of powerful companies.
“Family camping has always been the most affordable option for vacation but with credit card fees and other costs continuing to rise with no ability for campground owners to negotiate these fees, it’s making it harder and harder for us to maintain that affordability,” said Sean Vidrine, Owner of Four Points RV Resorts in Lake Charles, Louisiana and chair of the OHI Advocacy Work Group. “That why I am in DC with OHI this week demanding that Congress act and give this bill the vote that small businesses and the camping consumers deserve.”
OHI has championed this bipartisan legislation through a multi-industry coalition called the Merchants Payments Coalition, traveling to Washington, D.C. with more than 75 different OHI-member outdoor hospitality businesses over the past two years.
Swipe fees, charged every time a consumer uses a credit card, cost U.S. businesses tens of billions of dollars each year, expenses that are often passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices. Unlike many other industries, the credit card processing market lacks meaningful competition, allowing fees to rise unchecked year after year.
“Credit card swipe fees are one of the largest expenses outdoor hospitality businesses face, and they only keep rising,” said David Basler, OHI’s Chief Strategy Officer and SVP of Government Affairs. “The Credit Card Competition Act is a common-sense fix that brings fairness and real competition back to the market, and we’re here this week to make sure Congress hears that message directly from the small business owners feeling it most.”
To help this effort, send a letter to Congress asking them to support the Credit Card Competition Act. Using OHI’s Advocacy Action Center, it will take you one minute to complete: ohi.quorum.us/campaign/CCCA.
