Almost 2,000 companies and a total of 270 trade associations from across the country signed letters this week calling on Congress to pass it.

The Credit Card Competition Act was recently reintroduced, having first been offered in the Senate last July. Senators Richard Durbin, D-Ill.; Roger Marshall, R-Kan.; Peter Welch, D-Vt., and J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, along with Representatives Lance Gooden, D-Texas; Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif.; Thomas Tiffany, R-Wisc., and Jefferson Van Drew, R-N.J., were responsible for the reintroduction.

In response, the National Retail Federation (NRF) has called on Congress to pass this long-sought legislation to address credit card “swipe” fees, welcoming a measure that would let retailers route transactions over competing networks that offer lower fees and improved security.

“It’s time for big banks and global card networks to compete for the same as small businesses do every day,” NRF Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel Stephanie Martz said. “Skyrocketing swipe fees have been driving up prices for consumers for far too long, and we are confident this is the year Congress is going to say it’s time for that to stop. Competition will bring these fees under control and strengthen security at the same time.”

Visa and Mastercard — which control 80% of the U.S. credit card market — currently restrict competition by allowing transactions made on cards issued under their brands to be processed only over their own networks. But the bill would require that credit cards issued by the nation’s largest banks be able to be processed over at least two unaffiliated networks — Visa or Mastercard plus a competing credit card network or one of several independent networks like Star, NYCE or Shazam. Merchants would then choose which of the two networks to use, prompting networks to compete over fees, security and service.

The Merchants Payments Coalition also welcomed the reintroduction of the Credit Card Competition Act.

“Small businesses are calling out the loudest for swipe fee reform because we are hit the hardest by these fees,” said Mike Beal, chief financial officer of Kansas City, Kan., family-owned grocer Balls Foods. “Small businesses pay the highest swipe fee rates, we don’t have the resources to navigate complex credit card contracts, and we have absolutely no leverage to negotiate as these fees rise higher every year. Small businesses need swipe fee reform, and we need it now.”

Close to 2,000 companies and a total of 270 trade associations from across the country signed letters this week calling on Congress to pass the Credit Card Competition Act, MPC said.

A letter sent to Congress by 1,980 individual merchant companies said Visa and Mastercard’s control of more than 80% of the U.S. credit card market means “they do not have to compete with any other service provider for merchant business” and that they “bar their competitors from even having a shot at business with banks that issue their cards.”

“The Credit Card Competition Act would bring much-needed relief to retailers and American consumers by simply requiring that Visa and Mastercard compete with other networks for both merchants and bank business,” the companies said.

In addition to lowering fees, the bill would improve security. Independent networks have less fraud than Visa and Mastercard’s networks, according to the Federal Reserve, and the bill would bar networks controlled by foreign governments like China’s UnionPay from American credit cards. Any bank could put China UnionPay on its credit cards right now with no legal restrictions, but the bill would close that loophole.

Banks would also decide which networks to enable, but merchants would then choose which to use on individual transactions, meaning networks would have to compete over fees, security and service, saving merchants and their customers an estimated $11 billion a year. Consumers would still use the same Visa and Mastercard cards they now use, rewards would not be affected, and community banks and small credit unions would be exempt.