A spokesman for the Electronic Payments Coalition said retailers' latest efforts to intimidate members of Congress into cutting or capping card interchange reflected their desperation to find traction on the issue.

Trisha Wexler, spokesman for the Coalition of credit and debit card issuers, called retailers' recently announced advertising campaign, targeting eight members of the House Financial Services Committee, a "hail Mary pass" and noted that the "strong bipartisan group" of lawmaker which had opposed similar legislation in the last Congress remained in place.

"We haven't seen any indication that there has been a change in legislative opposition to this bill," Wexler said. She also speculated that the retailers' efforts might backfire as it put the targeted legislators in the difficult position of taking a stand in opposition to their leadership on the matter.