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Empowering States' Rights To Protect Consumers Act of 2026
To amend the Truth in Lending Act to empower the States to set the maximum annual percentage rates applicable to consumer credit transactions, and for other purposes.
Summary
This bill amends the Truth in Lending Act to allow individual states to set the maximum interest rates for consumer credit transactions. Currently, federal law sets certain limits on annual percentage rates, but this legislation would enable each state to impose its own maximum rates on consumer loans, credit cards, and similar products, excluding residential mortgages. The change would apply to the interest rates and associated fees charged in consumer credit transactions. Individual states would be able to enforce their own rate caps according to their existing state laws. This shifts authority over consumer interest rate limits from the federal level to the state level.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
3 cosponsors
- Sen. Merkley, Jeff [D-OR] (D-OR)
- Sen. Reed, Jack [D-RI] (D-RI)
- Sen. Warren, Elizabeth [D-MA] (D-MA)
Actions (2)
- Jan 29, 2026 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. · senate
- Jan 29, 2026 Introduced in Senate
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Full text
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
January 29, 2026
Mr. Whitehouse (for himself, Ms. Warren, Mr. Reed, and Mr. Merkley) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
A BILL
To amend the Truth in Lending Act to empower the States to set the maximum annual percentage rates applicable to consumer credit transactions, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Empowering States’ Rights To Protect Consumers Act of 2026”.
SEC. 2. LIMITS ON ANNUAL PERCENTAGE RATES.
(a) In General.—Chapter 2 of the Truth in Lending Act (15 U.S.C. 1631 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following:
“SEC. 140B. LIMITS ON ANNUAL PERCENTAGE RATES.
“Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the annual percentage rate applicable to any consumer credit transaction (other than a residential mortgage transaction), including any fees associated with such a transaction, may not exceed the maximum rate permitted by the laws of the State in which the consumer resides.”.
(b) Technical and Conforming Amendment.—The table of contents for chapter 2 of the Truth in Lending Act is amended by adding at the end the following:
“140B. Limits on annual percentage rates.”. <all>
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