Promoting misleading messaging to push a political agenda is not a new tactic. However, it is still disheartening to see how misstatements, half-truths, and outright lies are being weaponized to oppose a policy that could genuinely benefit consumers and small businesses .

The Credit Card Competition Act , or CCCA — introduced Wednesday by Sens. Roger Marshall (R-KS), J.D. Vance (R-OH), and Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Reps. Lance Gooden (R-TX) and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) — is a critical piece of legislation that will greatly improve the way businesses process credit card payments.

The premise of the legislation is simple: It provides businesses with a second routing option to process credit card payments. Currently, businesses have no choice but to pay the fees set by Visa or other networks.

The CCCA, however, empowers businesses by giving them more control over the fees they pay and the networks they use. By providing businesses with a choice, they can select the network with the lowest fees and save money on their processing costs.

This legislation is not only essential for the financial health of small businesses, which have had to cover swipe fee increases of over 16% in the last year alone, but also for the economy as a whole. By reducing the cost of credit card processing, businesses can lower costs for consumers, and they can also reinvest those savings into their operations, creating new jobs, and driving economic growth.

Yet despite the bill’s simplicity, big banks and the credit card giants know that increased competition will eat into their record profits, so they are pulling out all the stops to prevent this bill from becoming law, even if that means completely mischaracterizing what the bill will do.

For example, some have claimed that this bill would put an artificial cap on swipe fees . But the bill would lower swipe fees through increased competition, not a cap. Supporters of the free market understand that increased competition brings better products at lower prices, and that's exactly what the CCCA would do.

By providing businesses with at least two routing options to process credit card transactions, Visa and Mastercard will finally be forced to compete with smaller networks and lower their swipe fees to more competitive rates. Otherwise, retailers will choose a different network.

In addition to lying about the bill containing a cap on swipe fees, others have claimed that “the proposed Act would prohibit networks that have affiliated companies with the credit card issuer from processing the transaction.” This is just flat-out wrong. Businesses could still process the Visa Chase Sapphire Card on the Visa exchange network, but importantly, they would not be forced to because there would be a second network option, such as SHAZAM, NYCE, or Pulse.

Finally, an oft-repeated but completely inaccurate claim is that this bill would be harmful to community banks and credit unions. In fact, only roughly 30 banks nationwide would be affected by this legislation, given that the bill only applies to banks with assets of $100 billion or more — so ostensibly only the largest banks in the country.

Given the goodwill community banks and credit unions garner due to their support for local communities, it's no wonder why Wall Street banks would want to hide behind these institutions.

But the truth is the CCCA would benefit these smaller financial institutions. Credit Unions, just like merchants, should have the ability to work with more than one network on their cards and use that bargaining power to get the best deal possible.

We have already seen this happen with debit cards. This competition among payment networks on debit cards has allowed credit unions to leverage network competition through Co-Op Pay, a collaborative organization, to secure favorable terms for their debit card offerings. The competition among payment networks on debit cards has proven to be advantageous for credit unions, and the same will be true for credit cards if the CCCA becomes law.

The only organizations that stand to benefit from not passing the CCCA are the big banks and credit card giants, which rake in record profits year after year. By spreading false information and sowing doubt, those in opposition are jeopardizing the chance for much-needed relief for those who need it most.

Hopefully, Congress can see past the lies and make passing this commonsense solution a priority this year. The benefits of this policy are too significant to let it fall victim to misinformation and deceit.