Found this at DailyKos
House Republicans gag witnesses against credit card companies
by smintheus
Sun Mar 16, 2008 at 04:36:27 PM PDT
Like so many other Americans, they discovered that their credit card interest rates had skyrocketed without warning and sometimes inexplicably. So on Thursday these citizens were invited to testify before the House Financial Services subcommittee on Consumer Credit, which is considering the The Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights (PDF). This legislation would add some significant new consumer protections, such as requiring credit card companies to notify customers at least 45 days in advance of a rate increase.
But Republicans on the committee found a repulsive new way to prevent the witnesses from testifying. At the last minute, the GOP insisted that these victims of arbitrary fee hikes (who'd flown into DC from around the country to tell their stories) had to sign a vaguely worded waver permitting the credit card companies to discuss their credit histories publicly anywhere, anytime. For four of the five, it was a deal-breaker. Instead of signing the waivers allowing them to testify Thursday, they all sat silently in the audience.
"I didn't want all my ... information out there for just anybody," said Denver's Susan Wones, who saw the interest rate of her JP Morgan Chase card jump from
0 percent to 23 percent in one month last summer, without notification or explanation. "I'm extremely upset I can't talk about this."...
At Thursday's hearing, the first panel was to consist of five card holders who had suffered interest rate hikes or unexplained user fees despite a claimed history of responsible borrowing. The GOP waiver requirement came as a surprise, the witnesses said, not least because it surfaced just one day before theb] hearing. "I didn't have time to contact a lawyer or anything," Wones said.
In addition, witnesses said they were concerned with the vagueness of the one-sentence waiver language, which offered no limitations on where or when the lenders could discuss their credit histories.
Make no mistake, this Republican stunt had the sole purpose of gagging witnesses who would otherwise have testified about the credit card companies' sharp practices.more...
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/3/16/193627/586/553/477447