Who says Republicans and Democrats can’t work together?

In their quest to regulate credit card payments, Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Roger Marshall (R-KS) are showing that bipartisanship is alive and well. Not only did they come together in September to put forth the Credit Card Competition Act, but they are now setting out as a team to harass opponents of their bill.

The senators recently submitted a letter to the Department of Transportation and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, claiming that airlines engage in unfair and deceptive practices through their loyalty programs. In the letter, they asked if the agencies “have the regulatory authority needed to adequately protect consumers … from these practices.” Interestingly, this comes after the airline industry came out against the CCCA, arguing that the bill would put credit card airline rewards at risk.

It’s clear that the senators are engaging in bipartisan political harassment of the airline industry for opposing the bill. If frequent flier and other loyalty programs were truly full of unfair and deceptive practices that eradicated their value proposition, as they suggest, then consumers would simply opt out of airline co-branded credit cards.

But instead of allowing the market to work out any purported issues, the senators want to empower the DOT and CFPB to micromanage credit card airline rewards programs — even indicating in their letter that they would urge Congress to expand the agencies’ powers if necessary for them to take action.

It is concerning to see members of the legislature weaponizing the federal government against dissent. Companies should be able to voice their concerns over potential legislation without the threat of becoming subject to unfounded regulatory scrutiny.

And unfortunately for Durbin and Marshall, the airline industry is certainly right to raise alarm bells over the viability of credit card rewards programs if the CCCA were ever to become law. In an attempt to decrease credit card interchange fees, the CCCA would require banks to provide credit cards through at least one payment processor other than Visa or MasterCard. This would eat into profits, reducing banks’ ability to offer rewards programs.

This is not just theory. This has played out before. In 2010, the Durbin Amendment to the Dodd-Frank Act capped the interchange fees that payment processors could charge on debit card payments, and a swift move away from debit card rewards followed. Government meddling in the price system leads to consumer harm.

According to data from Airlines for America, an industry trade organization and lobbying group, 30 million Americans, or one out of four households , have airline credit cards and 15 million trips have been awarded through credit card points. The disappearance of credit card rewards programs would be a negative development for many who use these rewards on their flights.

The airline industry is right to tell consumers to worry about the CCCA. It is unfortunate to see Durbin and Marshall move to weaponize federal bureaucracies in response to their opposition to the bill.

Benjamin Ayanian ( @BenjaminAyanian ) is a contributor to Young Voices.