Washington is turning up the heat on the credit-card industry. President Obama is pressing Congress to pass legislation that will rein in the industry's practices by Memorial Day. And today in Arizona, Obama took his case to voters at a town hall meeting dedicated to the subject.

The Senate is currently debating two bills aimed at protecting consumers. One is Rep. Carolyn Maloney's (D., N.Y.) Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights, which passed the House of Representatives in April by a wide margin of 357 to 70. The other is a bill proposed by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.).

While calls to rein in the industry's practices continue to mount, some fear tighter regulation could cause banks to cut back on lending -- with potentially harmful effects on the economy and consumers.

SmartMoney.com sat down with Maloney to talk about the pending legislation in the Senate. Below are excerpts from our interview:

SmartMoney: What, in your opinion, are some the most controversial industry practices that must be stopped?

Maloney: No other contract in the world allows one side to make all the decisions, which is what it is now with the card companies. They can decide to raise a consumer's rate, any time, any reason, and [the Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights that Maloney is sponsoring] stops that.

SmartMoney: The Federal Reserve had written and approved new regulations in December, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is going to enforce them. Why do we need special legislation from Congress in addition to that?

Maloney: In December, [the Federal Reserve] put their rule out and [said] it would go into effect July 2010. First, we need to move it up. If these practices and the Federal Reserve called these practices unfair, deceptive and anticompetitive we should put [the rules] in place as soon as possible.

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Secondly and very, very importantly, rules can be changed... [The Federal Reserve] could take parts of it away. They could decide not to enforce it. Once it becomes a law, you're standing on firmer ground... So it's much stronger and more important for consumers.

SmartMoney: You said it's important to get these into place faster. How much faster would these go into place if the bill passes?

Maloney: Well, 90 days after enactment. I tried to move it up even more in the House and failed. But I did get a provision that had 45 days' notice [for rate increases that] would go into effect 30 days after enactment. That's important. That gives an important tool to consumers to better manage their credit. (NOTE: Maloney's office contacted SmartMoney following publication of this story to say that the House bill s 45-day notice provision would take effect 90 days after enactment, not 30 days).

SmartMoney: The Senate is now debating your bill, as well as some amendments and Sen. Dodd's version. Any thoughts on what the final bill will look like?

Maloney: As we speak, there are 30 additional amendments [in the Senate version], including one that passed that said that guns are allowed in federal parks, which is ridiculous. It has absolutely nothing to do with an important consumer protection bill. I hope we can get that off in the House. But it has other improvements which I think are important. One of them is that you cannot charge a fee that is higher than what is really the cost associated with the fee to the financial institution. One would lengthen the amount of time you have to not pay your bills before an interest rate [increase] would kick in. My bill had 30 days, the Senate has 60 days. That's an improvement for consumers. But as we move forward, although additional protections are important, the main thing is that the most abusive practices are in the bill that passed the House so that there is a standard of protections -- a bill of rights, shall we say -- for consumers upon which you can have other rights.