The Electronic Security Association (ESA) has scored victories on two key bills moving through Congress - one involving credit card transactions and the other affecting external power supplies for alarm and surveillance systems.
According to the Association, the “Financial CHOICE Act of 2017” contained a provision (strongly supported by the banking industry) that would remove the cap on credit card “swipe fees”, which limited the amount of back-end, hidden charges that banks and credit card companies could charge for each credit card transaction. House leaders decided to remove the provision after realizing that heavy opposition from the retail industry, ESA and other groups impacted by that provision, threatened the entire bill.
In another victory for the industry, ESA is working closely with dealers, integrators, manufacturers and a coalition of industry partners to extend an exemption for life safety alarms and surveillance systems from external power supply (EPS) energy efficiency standards. This exemption is set to expire in 2017 - and if it does, would create negative consequences for all EPS used in fire and security systems, which are not designed to meet these standards because they cannot be powered down and provide the protection for which they are designed.
The Senate Bill, S.190 passed the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and was placed on the Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders on May 24, 2017. The House version, H.R. 511, passed on January 23, 2017.
