ALEXANDRIA, VA - The banking industry has launched a massive grassroots push to kill swipe fee reforms. They have been on Capitol Hill, mobilized their employees and are sending thousands of calls and letters urging Congress to reject the swipe fee reforms adopted by the Senate last month. Every retailer must act now to preserve these reforms and bring critical relief to merchants and consumers.

On Friday we learned that 85 U.S. representatives signed on to a letter opposing swipe fee reform. Here is the letter they signed. Call these representatives now and tell them to stand up to the big banks ?" don??t be fooled by their lies and support small retailers and consumers. Read the misrepresentations that banking industry allies are distributing to members of Congress on Capitol Hill.

It is critical you act now. The House and Senate are negotiating their respective versions of Financial Services Reform legislation. The Senate version contains a provision known as the Durbin Amendment that is named after the senator who drafted the language to reform swipe fees. The banking industry is pushing the House of Representative to reject these provisions, arguing that the amendment would "would significantly harm thousands of community banks and credit unions that offer debit and credit cards to their customers and members."

Please follow these four steps:

1. Have your entire company call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask for their legislators by name.
2. Tell your legislators to: Keep the Durbin Swipe Fee amendment ?" unchanged?" in the final version of the Financial Services Reform bill.
3. Ask your legislators to: Please sign the Welch-Shuster-Carney letter in support of swipe fee reforms.
4. Have your entire company visit nacsonline.com/grassroots and send an e-mail to their legislators in support of swipe fee reform.