The Bingaman-Shelby amendment hedges against the charge that its sponsors want nothing more than to fritter away finite SDI resources on endless research and development a sort of high-priced "hobby shop, " designed to employ constituents but not to produce anything that might inconveniently prove to be deployable.
Originally, the Durbin amendment called to cap so-called interchange fees banks charge retailers at 12 cents per transaction, but the Fed announced today that it would up that cap to 21 cents.
Last week, the Senate passed an amendment sponsored by Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) that could reduce interchange fees that credit card processors charge to merchants and allow stores to give customers discounts for paying with cash, check or debit cards.