Stephanie Bice took campaign contributions from payday lenders and their lobbyists and voted for a bill that let them charge Oklahomans 200% interest. That bill was pushed by the payday loan industry and was so bad for that vetoed it. But Bice took their money and voted for their bill.

Year Donor Amount 2017 Advance America Cash Advance $1,000 Centers PAC 2019 Brett Robinson $750 2019 James McSpadden $1,000 2019 McSpadden & Associates LLC $1,000 2019 James Milner $2,800

Bice Received $1,000 From Advance America Cash Advance Centers PAC. Bice received $1,000 from Advance America Cash Advance Centers PAC, on October 5, 2017. [Oklahoma Ethics Commission, Campaign Finance Reporting, accessed 4/25/19]

Advance America Was The Largest Chain Of Payday Lenders In The . In October 2017, the New York Times reported: “The biggest companies in the payday industry are nearly all owned by private equity firms. Mainstream banks and publicly traded companies, scared off by a regulatory crackdown and bad publicity, have left the market in recent years. The largest remaining chain, Advance America, which has 2,100 locations in 28 states, is owned by Grupo Salinas, a Mexican conglomerate.” [New York Times, 10/5/17]

2019: Bice Received $2,000 From Advance America Lobbyist James McSpadden And His Firm McSpadden & Associates, LLC. On June 30, 2019, Bice’s Congressional campaign received $1,000 from James McSpaden, who worked at MMR Government Relations. Bice also received a $1,000 donation from McSpadden’s firm Principal Partner of McSpadden & Associates, LCC. [FEC Individual Donor Search, 6/30/19]

[FEC Individual Donor Search, 6/30/19]

James McSpadden Was A Lobbyist For Advance America Cash Advance Centers Of Oklahoma.

[Oklahoma Ethics Commission, Accessed 8/31/20]

2019: Bice Received $2,800 From Advance America Lobbyist James Milner. On June 30, 2019, Bice’s Congressional campaign received a total of $2,800 from James Milner, who worked at MMR Government Relations in . [FEC Individual Donor Search, 6/30/19]

[FEC Individual Donor Search, 6/30/19]

James Milner Was A Lobbyist For Advance America Cash Advance Centers Of Oklahoma.

[Oklahoma Ethics Commission, Accessed 8/31/20]

2019-2020: Bice Received $750 From Advance America Lobbyist Brett Robinson. Between 2019 and 2020, Bice received a total of total of $750 from Cooper Brett Robinson. On December 27, 2019, Bice’s Congressional campaign received $500 from Brett Robinson, who worked at McSpadden Milner Robinson as a lobbyist in Oklahoma City. On June 16, 2020, Bice received $250 from Brett Robinson who worked at McSpadden Milner Robinson, LLC. as a attorney in Oklahoma City. [FEC Individual Donor Search, 12/27/19; 6/18/20]

[FEC Individual Donor Search, accessed 12/27/19]

[FEC Individual Donor Search, 6/18/20]

Brett Robinson Was A Lobbyist For Advance America Cash Advance Centers Of Oklahoma.

[Oklahoma Ethics Commission, Accessed 8/31/20]

In Oklahoma, The Average Payday Loan Interest Rate Was 395%. According to CNBC, the average interest rate of a payday loan in Oklahoma was 395%. [CNBC, 8/3/18]

In April 2017, Bice Voted For House Bill 1913. On April 27, 2017, Bice voted for The Small Loan Act which was “Consumer credit; creating the Small Loan Act; effective date.” [HB 1913, 4/27/17]

House Bill 1913 Created A New Loan Product That Would Have Enabled The Payday Loan Industry, To Add Over 200% Interest On Borrowing. “HB 1913 creates a new loan product, known as a Small Loan, which could be made for up to $1,500 for a 12-month term. Lenders could charge 17 percent monthly interest, which amounts to an APR of 204 percent. Borrowers would be hit with a $255 interest payment at the end of the first month, which could be withdrawn automatically from their bank account. To pay off the full $1,500 loan over 12 months, borrowers who avoided defaulting would pay cumulative interest of $2,108. The payday loan lobbyists who are pushing the small loan bill assert that this new product is needed because of federal rules proposed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau aimed at curbing the payday loan debt trap.” [Oklahoma Policy Institute, 3/7/17]

The Payday Loan Industry Was Pushing The Bill. “The payday loan lobbyists who are pushing the small loan bill assert that this new product is needed because of federal rules proposed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau aimed at curbing the payday loan debt trap. They claim that the federal reforms, if enacted, would kill the payday loan industry and that the small loans authorized by HB 1913 would serve as a replacement.” [Oklahoma Policy Institute, 3/7/17]

On May 5, 2017, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin Vetoed House Bill 1913, Saying That The Bill Created High-Interest Product And Would Be More Expensive Than Current Loan Options. “Gov. Mary Fallin vetoed a bill on Friday that would have created a loan with a 204 percent annual interest rate. In her veto message, Fallin wrote that the bill, which reflects a national push for new installment loans by the payday lending industry, would create a high-interest product without restricting access to other payday loan products. ‘In fact, I believe that some of the loans created by this bill would be MORE EXPENSIVE than the current loan options,’ she wrote. [...]House Bill 1913 would have created ‘small’ loans with a monthly interest rate of 17 percent, which equates to 204 percent in annual interest. A 12-month loan of $1,500 would leave borrowers owing about $2,100 in total interest if all payments were made on time.” [Tulsa World, 5/5/17]