A bill that would ban banks from charging overdraft fees during the coronavirus pandemic was introduced by House Democrats

• The chairs of the House Oversight and Antitrust Committees introduced legislation this week to ban banks from charging overdraft fees during the coronavirus pandemic.
• The bill would also stop banks from reporting overdrafts to credit reporting agencies.
• It also instructs banks to "extend a reasonable overdraft line of credit to consumers with insufficient funds."
• Democrats in the Senate have also asked the banks to stop charging the fees.
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Democratic Reps. David Cicilline and Carolyn Maloney introduced legislation this week to stop banks from charging overdraft fees during the coronavirus pandemic, as many who have lost their source of income struggle with depleting funds in their accounts.

"Under President Trump, the big banks are doing just fine. They don't need to be punishing their customers with overdraft fees right now," Cicilline, who chairs the House Antitrust Subcommittee, said in a statement. "This is a commonsense bill that protects consumers. Members of both parties should get behind it today."

Maloney, who chairs the Oversight Committee, said that "unfair, deceptive, and costly overdraft fees hit those who can afford them the least the hardest; cash-strapped hardworking Americans and college students who are struggling to pay their bills."

The bill would stop banks from charging the fees for "any transaction, including at ATMs, at the register, or involving checks or recurring payments," the statement said.

The lawmakers said that in 2017, Americans paid more than $34 billion in overdraft fees, which are charged when a withdrawal forces an account into a negative balance.

Some accounts don't allow overdrafts and instead block transactions when there are insufficient funds. The lawmakers said in a statement that some consumers may not know they were opted-in to overdraft coverage and subject to fees.

Democratic Sens. Cory Booker and Sherrod Brown sent letters last week to the heads of many of the largest US banks, including Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America asking them to stop charging overdraft fees.

The banks did not immediately respond to a request from Business Insider.

The legislation also directs banks to "extend a reasonable overdraft line of credit to consumers with insufficient funds," during the pandemic, and would ban banks from reporting overdraft use to credit reporting agencies.

To become law, the Democrats' bill would need to pass in the Democrat-controlled House and then passed by the Republican Senate and ultimately signed by the president.