News

Fee placard bill passes easily in House vote

July 9, 2012

In a Monday evening vote, H.R. 4367: To amend the Electronic Fund Transfer Act to limit the fee disclosure requirement for an automatic teller machine to the screen of that machine, was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives.

According to govtrack, the bill passed with 371 House members (86 percent) voting in favor of the legislation, which would end the mandate for a physical fee placard on ATM machines. There were no dissenting votes; 60 members either were absent or abstained from voting. 

The vote was taken under "suspension of the rules," a procedure that is generally used to allow quick decisions on non-controversial legislation. Votes under suspension require a two-thirds majority, which H.R. 4367 easily achieved.

A bill similar to to H.R. 4367 — Senate bill S.3204 — was submitted to the Senate in May by U.S. Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb. According to govtrack, this legislation has not yet been sent to a Senate committee for consideration and comment.

Should the Senate bill come up for a vote and pass, a conference committee would then have to conform the language of the bills into a single piece of legislation whose wording is acceptable to both legislative bodies.

According to govtrack analytics, the Senate bill currently has just a two percent likelihood of passing. This forecast is based on the fact that in 2009–2010, a mere three percent of all Senate bills were enacted.

For more information on this topic, visit the regulatory issues research center.