As Congress returns from its spring recess, Republicans on both sides of the Capitol are preparing to employ a little-used legislative tool to kill the CFPB's prepaid card rules.

GOP members have said they intend to use the Congressional Review Act to bury the regulations, which the CFPB already has proposed delaying.

The rules, which the CFPB finalized in October, would require financial institutions issuing prepaid cards to give consumers upfront information about fees and other details, limit consumer losses when cards are lost or stolen, investigate potential errors and provide other consumer protections.

Credit union groups have argued that the rules are too broad.

The rules were scheduled to go into effect on Oct. 1, but the CFPB has proposed delaying the effective date until April 1, 2018. The delay, the agency said, would give industry participants more time to implement required changes and give the CFPB time to determine if it should change any provisions.

“The Bureau continues to believe that the Prepaid Accounts Final Rule will provide significant benefits to consumers and that, therefore, expeditious implementation remains essential to provide comprehensive consumer protections to users of prepaid accounts,” the agency said in proposing the delay.

But the bureau may never have the chance to finalize the rules.

GOP members of Congress have introduced resolutions that would prohibit the CFPB from issuing the rules.

Under the Congressional Review Act, Congress has been able to pass resolutions nullifying rules enacted during the closing months of the Obama Administration.

Until this year, the Congressional Review Act had been successfully used only once. However, Congress and the Trump Administration have used it several times in the opening months of the administration.

In the Senate, several Republican senators introduced a resolution that the Senate is likely to consider as it returns from its recess.

“As a business guy, I have experienced first-hand the impact overregulation has on growth and innovation,” Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) said as he introduced the resolution. “This rule is entirely too broad and would cripple the electronic payment marketplace which Georgians and millions of consumers across the country depend on.”

On the House side, Rep. Roger Williams (R-Texas) has introduced a similar resolution.

“While President Obama's CFPB was marketed as an extra layer of protection for consumers, it has actually cornered millions of Americans who have limited or no access to the products offered by our traditional banking system,” Williams said. “It is my hope that we undo this harmful rule before it takes effect so that all families can go about their everyday lives.”

For its part, CUNA has called on the CFPB to delay the rules until Oct. 1, 2018.

“We urge the Bureau to use the extra time to review the rule with an eye toward limiting new regulatory requirements on credit unions offering prepaid accounts, so that such accounts remain accessible and so that credit unions and other issuers remain innovative in the payments space,” Luke Martone, CUNA's senior director of advocacy and counsel, said in a letter to the agency.

In a letter to the CFPB, Andrew Morris, NAFCU's regulatory affairs counsel, asked the agency to rescind the rule, delay it for 18 months or exempt credit unions from the rule altogether.

“The complexity of the Rule's new disclosure requirements is disproportionate to the types of prepaid products credit unions offer,” Morris said. He said that a sudden transition to a highly regulated prepaid account environment could hurt financially vulnerable consumers who rely on prepaid cards.

Earlier this month, state attorneys general from 17 states and the District of Columbia sent a letter to House members and senators asking them to drop efforts to prohibit the CFPB from issuing the prepaid rules.

“The CFPB's careful approach to implementation demonstrates its dedication to crafting a rule that protects consumers and encourages a thriving, responsible industry,” the attorneys general said.

The attorneys general said that consumers who use prepaid cards turn to them as a way of avoiding fees. However, the cards carry a poorly explained or hidden fees that are absent from traditional financial products.

“Action is needed now to protect this growing, relatively unprotected segment of the population,” the letter stated.

The attorneys general sent the letter to represent the District of Columbia, California, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington. The executive director of the Hawaii Office of Consumer Protection also signed the letter.

Supporters of the rule say that the prepaid card industry has contributed thousands of dollars to congressional campaigns in an effort to block the rules.

Allied Progress, a liberal group that supports strict CFPB enforcement, this week filed suit against the agency in an effort to expedite a Freedom of Information Act request for documents it says will shed light on efforts to block the rule.