Senator Jon Tester

Greetings from the US Senate. I’m honored to share a few words with my many friends at the Montana Credit Union Network. I want to offer my thanks to everyone in the room today for the hard work that you do everyday supporting business and creating jobs in rural America. The work you do keeps our rural communities strong and full of opportunity. That’s why I lead the fight last spring to get Congress to delay and study the cap on debit interchange fees. People ask me what was a farmer from Montana doing leading the charge on this issue. Well, it’s a simple answer. I got in the fight for you. For the consumers and small businesses you serve and support in the economy of rural America. Because when the government sets a price on debit card swipe fees, it’s the little guys that get hurt. Rural America pays the price. Community banks and credit unions get socked. When the Fed issued its final rule, it raised the price cap to consider the cost of fighting fraud and processing transactions. Now it wasn’t perfect. But it was a heck of a lot better than where we started. We worked to make the law better for credit unions and the communities that you support. It happened because you got involved. Working together we can make sure that credit unions continue to help rural communities thrive.

Keep up the good work. Have a great event. Be well and keep in touch.