Utah Sens. Mike Lee and John Curtis voted Thursday to allow banks to continue charging consumers sky-high overdraft fees that cost Americans billions each year.
S.J. Res. 18, co-sponsored by Lee, overturns a recent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule designed to cap most overdraft fees at just $5. Currently, many banks charge $35 or more for each overdraft. The CFPB estimated that the rule would save American consumers $5 billion per year.
Banks have challenged the regulation in court, arguing that the rule would hamper their ability to offer overdraft protection to consumers, though critics point out that overdraft fees disproportionately affect low-income Americans and often trap them in cycles of debt.
The Senate approved the resolution on Thursday on a near party-line vote 52-48. Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley was the only Republican to vote against the measure.
Neither Lee nor Curtis’s office immediately responded to a request for comment from Utah Political Watch.
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The resolution was advanced through the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to reverse regulations with a majority vote. It now heads to the House of Representatives, where a similar measure was introduced last month.
Lee is also co-sponsoring a measure from Texas Sen. Ted Cruz to defund the CFPB entirely, an agency created after the 2008 financial crisis specifically to protect consumers from predatory financial practices.
