December 18, 2023

Kathy Pierce, NPA GRC Liaison

On Friday, December 15, 2023, Senator Jack Reed (D. Rhode Island) introduced the Predatory Lending Elimination Act, S. 3549. The bill has numerous co-sponsors among senior Democrats in the Senate.

The bill appears focused on payday lenders with multiple statements about payday loan abuses. The intention is clearly to apply Military Lending Act-style APR restrictions on all consumer loans.

Team GRC expects Chuy Garcia (D. Illinois) to introduce a companion bill once the House of Representatives is back in session in January.

While Team GRC will be focused on how Senator Reed’s bill will affect pawn and whether we can carve pawn transactions from his bill, we urge NPA members to increase their grass-roots efforts with your state’s Senators and with the member of the House of Representatives in the districts in which you have stores and where you and employees live.

We urge non-members to join the NPA and help us in the fight to keep pawn transactions out of S. 3549.