Swipe-Fee Bill Loses Its GOP Champion: What Merchants Do Now

The Credit Card Competition Act after the 2026 election lost both Senate sponsors. Here's what that means and the card costs you can cut now.

Adrian ReyesSenior Payments & Fintech Editor

November 10, 2026 · 8 min read

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Photo: Pixabay

On this page 6 sections

What Happened: The Swipe-Fee Bill Loses Both Senate Sponsors
Where the Credit Card Competition Act Stood Before the 2026 Election
Who Could Take Over the Bill in a Democratic Senate
Why a Slower Path Means Your Fees Won't Fall on Their Own
Cost Levers You Control Today
How to Track the Credit Card Routing Bill in the New Congress

Key takeaways

Neither Senate sponsor will be back in January. If the bill doesn't pass in the lame-duck session, it has to be reintroduced in a Democratic-controlled Congress, with Sen. Peter Welch named as Durbin's successor on it.
Even if it passed, the bill gives the Federal Reserve up to a year after enactment to write rules. So credit routing savings probably wouldn't show up on statements before 2028.
On flat-rate or tiered pricing, a cut in interchange doesn't reach you on its own. Interchange-plus pricing does pass it through.
You can act now on four costs: your pricing model, debit routing, Level 2/3 data on business cards, and a compliant cash discount, dual pricing or surcharge program.

After the 2026 election, the Credit Card Competition Act has no Senate sponsor coming back in January. Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) lost his reelection race on Nov. 3, and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) is retiring when his term ends. The bill is still alive, but it lost its Republican lead just as Democrats won control of Congress, and that leaves its path slower and less predictable. If you've been holding off on fixing your card costs until Congress acts, stop waiting and use the cost levers you already control.

What Happened: The Swipe-Fee Bill Loses Both Senate Sponsors

American Banker reported that Democrat Adam Hamilton, a Methodist minister, beat Marshall in an upset. Hamilton will be the first Democrat to represent Kansas in the Senate in almost a century. On Nov. 5, 2026, Payments Dive wrote that with Marshall voted out and Durbin retiring, the bill "faces an uncertain future."

Swipe fees were part of the race. Before the vote, American Banker reported that the Kansas Bankers Association had joined an ad buy of roughly $1 million targeting Marshall over the bill. The association put in about $250,000 and worked with the Electronic Payments Coalition, the industry group that opposes the legislation. Nobody can say how much those ads moved Kansas voters. What's certain is that the bank side made Marshall's sponsorship a campaign issue.

Doug Kantor is general counsel of the National Association of Convenience Stores and has long been a leading voice for the merchant side. He told Payments Dive that losing Marshall was "painful." He also said Marshall had won the bill more support this session, including from President Trump.

Where the Credit Card Competition Act Stood Before the 2026 Election

The current version is S.3623, introduced Jan. 13, 2026, with Marshall as sponsor. Congress.gov shows one action: it was referred to the Senate Banking Committee the day it was introduced. It never got a committee vote. The identical House bill, H.R.7035, led by Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Texas) and Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), is also still sitting in committee.

Here's what the bill would do. Large card issuers would have to enable at least two unaffiliated networks on each credit card, and at least one of them couldn't be Visa or Mastercard. The merchant, not the bank, would pick which network a transaction runs on. View from the Wing's summary puts the cutoff at issuers with more than $100 billion in assets. The law firm Kilpatrick notes that the bill follows the model of the 2010 Durbin Amendment, which dealt with debit. We cover the mechanics in more detail in where the Credit Card Competition Act stands and what it would change.

Supporters kept looking for a must-pass bill to attach it to, and kept failing. In 2025 they tried the GENIUS stablecoin bill. Payments Dive reported in March 2026 that the Senate passed a major housing bill without the card language attached. That came after the January reintroduction, which followed Trump's Truth Social post backing the bill.

Who Could Take Over the Bill in a Democratic Senate

Durbin has already picked a successor. Punchbowl News reported that Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) will carry the bill after Durbin leaves. Welch was an original cosponsor of S.3623. Congress.gov also lists Sens. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Angus King (I-Maine) as cosponsors added on Aug. 7, 2026. Lummis won't be back either. She announced in December 2025 that she would not run again, and her term expires in January 2027. That leaves Moreno as the most visible Republican cosponsor still serving in the next Congress.

The election also changed who will run the Senate. PBS NewsHour and CBS News reported that Democrats won control of the Senate, and CBS projected they will take over in January. As of Nov. 4, CNBC reported that Democrats had won the House too. Payments Dive's headline asks whether that "blue wave" helps the bill. The case for it is simple: the majority party chairs the committees, and S.3623 stalled in Senate Banking without a vote. A Democratic chair could give Welch's version the hearing and markup it never got this session.

The case against it is that majority control doesn't put a bill on the floor by itself, and losing Marshall costs the bill more than one vote. His value was giving a Durbin bill a Republican face and a connection to the president's endorsement. No one has said yet whether Moreno or another Republican will co-lead with Welch. Without one, the bill loses the bipartisan pitch that was its best argument this session. In the House, Lofgren will be in the new majority, and she and Gooden could bring their version back.

The opposition isn't changing either. Large banks, credit unions and the Electronic Payments Coalition have fought the bill for years. Their main arguments are that it would cut card rewards and hurt smaller issuers that the bill technically exempts. Kilpatrick's analysis notes that credit unions and community banks expect higher costs even though they're exempt. In Kansas, opponents showed they would campaign against a sponsor directly. Expect that to come up when another senator weighs whether to take Marshall's place.

The merchant side, organized largely through the Merchants Payments Coalition, isn't backing off. In January 2026, when the bill was reintroduced, Kantor predicted to Payments Dive that it would pass Congress if it could reach a vote. Getting that vote has always been the problem.

Why a Slower Path Means Your Fees Won't Fall on Their Own

Bills that aren't enacted by the end of a two-year Congress expire. The 119th Congress ends in early January 2027. That leaves supporters the lame-duck session, and Kilpatrick lists the National Defense Authorization Act as one possible vehicle. If nothing passes by then, the bill has to be reintroduced in the new Congress with a new number and new sponsors.

Even passage wouldn't change your statement right away. Under the bill text, the Federal Reserve would write the routing rules within a year after enactment. Issuers and networks would then have to build support for a second network on credit cards. Suppose the new Congress passed the bill in 2027, which is far from certain. Merchants still probably wouldn't see credit routing savings before 2028.

There's a second catch that most coverage skips. A lower interchange cost only lowers your bill if your pricing passes it through. Here's an illustrative example. Assume a grocery market runs $120,000 a month in card sales and pays $3,600 in total fees, a 3.00% effective rate. Now assume routing competition someday cut its interchange by 0.10 percentage point.

Pricing model	What happens to the 0.10-point interchange cut	Monthly effect (illustrative)
Interchange-plus	Passes straight through	$120 saved ($120,000 × 0.10%)
Flat rate or tiered	Stays with the processor unless it reprices you	$0 unless renegotiated

Even a successful law can leave you with nothing if your contract keeps the difference. Your pricing model is a decision you make now, and it pays off whether or not the bill ever passes.

Cost Levers You Control Today

None of these needs Congress. Each one is a conversation with your processor or a change to your settings.

Get on a Pricing Model That Passes Savings Through

Pull your last three statements and divide total fees by total card volume to get your effective rate. Check whether you're on interchange-plus, tiered or flat-rate pricing. Using the same illustrative grocer, moving from 3.00% to 2.70% would save $360 a month, or $4,320 a year. Your result depends on your card mix, average ticket and how much of your volume is keyed in or online. Our guide to what's normal and what's too high in processing fees shows how to spot inflated markups. Keep in mind that network assessments go to the card brands themselves, so no processor can negotiate them away.

Make Sure Debit Goes to the Cheapest Network

The Credit Card Competition Act copies a framework that already applies to debit. So ask your processor which networks your debit transactions run on, and whether it routes to the lowest-cost network available for both in-store and online sales. Grocery, convenience and quick-service restaurants see a lot of debit at small tickets, so for them this can matter more than anything Congress does. For the cost gap between the two card types, see debit vs. credit card processing fees.

Send Level 2 and Level 3 Data on Business Cards

This one matters if you sell to other businesses, take corporate catering orders or run a B2B online store. Visa and Mastercard set lower interchange categories for some commercial and purchasing cards when the sale includes extra data such as tax amount, customer code or line items. Those categories are network rules, and whether you qualify depends on the card and the data you send. Ask whether your payment gateway or virtual terminal sends those fields automatically.

Decide Who Pays the Fee

Some merchants would rather pass card costs to card users than wait for lower fees. Cash discount programs, dual pricing that shows a cash price and a card price and credit card surcharging where state law allows it each do that differently. Card network rules control how you disclose these programs, and state law decides whether surcharging is allowed at all. Rules can also differ between credit and debit. Treat this as general information and confirm current requirements with your processor and a qualified advisor before you change prices.

How to Track the Credit Card Routing Bill in the New Congress

The next 60 days decide whether this bill gets one more shot in the 119th Congress or starts over. Watch three things:

Lame-duck vehicles. Check whether card routing language gets attached to the defense bill or any year-end package before the session ends.
Reintroduction in January. Watch for a new bill number with Welch as lead and whether a Republican signs on to co-lead. Without a Republican partner, the bill would lose the bipartisan pitch Marshall gave it.
New committee chairs. Democrats will name the chairs of Senate Banking and House Financial Services in 2027. Whether those chairs schedule a markup will tell you more than any press release.

Swipe fees are also being fought on a separate track outside Congress. Follow the Visa-Mastercard swipe fee settlement heading to final approval as well.

The most useful thing to do this month has nothing to do with Washington. Send your last three processing statements to a specialist and ask for your effective rate, your pricing model and how your debit is routed. You can request a free quote from MannyPay with those statements, and a specialist will respond within one business day.

Sources

About the author

Adrian Reyes

Adrian Reyes is Senior Payments & Fintech Editor for Beyond the Swipe, covering credit card processing, merchant accounts, payment technology and processing fees.

This article is for general educational purposes and is not legal, tax or financial advice. Card network rules and state laws change; confirm current requirements for your business.