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Forty-Nine Senators Call On The Administration To Reverse Efforts To Erode The Military Lending Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Senator Reed (D-RI), Senator Brown (D-OH), and forty-seven other senators sent a letter to acting Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Mick Mulvaney, calling on the bureau to continue supervision of lending made to active duty service members and their families to ensure that lenders are complying with the Military Lending Act.

The MLA was passed in 2006 with bipartisan support to offer vital consumer protections to active duty military service members against predatory lenders. Payday lenders often base their storefronts near military bases to catch service members in loans with outrageously high interest rates that lead to a cycle of debt. The MLA caps the annual interest rate to service members and their dependents at 36%.

The Stop The Debt Trap campaign lauded the letter and the effort of Senators to defend the service members and their protections:

“We commend Senator Reed and his fellow senators for their leadership in protecting service members from abusive predatory lenders. Financial distress continues to be a leading factor that contributes to a lack of combat readiness and family stability for our men and women in uniform,” said José A, payday campaign manager at Americans for Financial Reform. “Families and service members rely on the Consumer Bureau to ensure lenders comply with the law, and are caught if they target service members with debt trap loans.”

“Given the opportunity, predatory lenders will target military servicemembers and pull them into horrific debt traps. The bipartisan Military Lending Act has helped put an end to these shameful practices. We applaud these senators for calling on the CFPB to fulfill its obligation of stopping loan sharks from preying upon servicemembers and their families,” said Scott Astrada, Federal Advocacy Director at the Center for Responsible Lending.

The letter can be found here and here.

The letter was signed by U.S. Senators: Reed, Brown, Nelson, Donnelly, Tester, Schumer, Mark Warner (D-VA), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Bob Casey (D-PA), Doug Jones (D-AL), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Patty Murray (D-WA), Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Angus King (I-ME), Christopher Coons (D-DE), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Gary Peters (D-MI), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Ed Markey (D-MA), Tom Udall (D-NM), Tom Carper (D-DE), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Tina Smith (D-MN), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Kamala Harris (D-CA).

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