WASHINGTON -- Backed by a cadre of consumer advocates, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd on Wednesday unveiled sweeping reforms to the rules governing the nation's credit card industry that he claims are needed to end deceptive and fraudulent practices that cost American families billions each year.

Paying interest on that late credit card fee?

Seeing your credit card's interest rate jacked up based on your credit score even though your account is in good standing?

Those and other“misleading” or“deceptive” practices by credit card companies are just a few U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., has put on his list of“don'ts” - a list that takes the form of new, sweeping legislation proposed Wednesday.

A day before federal regulators unveil a plan to curb credit card abuses, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd said he would introduce legislation today that moves far beyond those reforms.

But the Connecticut Democrat's hard-line approach reduces the bill's odds of enactment this year.

Sen. Chris Dodd introduced new legislation yesterday that would reform the way credit card companies do business.

The Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act (the C.A.R.D. Act) is aimed at stopping credit card practices that drag consumers into staggering amounts of debt, and too often harm, rather than help, the ability of American families to move up the economic ladder.

There’s a lot of things that I initially like about what the bill proposes. Here are a few highlights:

With credit card delinquencies on the rise, federal lawmakers and regulators are rushing to reform industrywide abuses they say are hurting consumers, who have chalked up a whopping $2.5 trillion in debt.

U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., say unfair practices like high late-payment penalties and exorbitant interest rates are rampant in the credit card industry and need legislative intervention.

In what has been the most significant legislative victory in his first term, Rep. Joe Courtney's effort to give Connecticut's Eightmile River greater federal protection now only awaits a presidential signature.

The bill — the first substantial win Courtney has had with a personally introduced piece of legislation — was jammed into a package of similar items that passed the House Tuesday evening. Under this legislation, segments of the river that runs through Lyme, East Haddam and Salem would be designated as an official Wild and Scenic river. That would limit further development and use of lands adjacent to the Eightmile.

Norwich - While federal, state and local fire inspectors combed the scene of the weekend fire that destroyed the 120-unit apartment complex, city workers were dealing Monday with problems affecting more than 150 residents who were left homeless.

The city's Department of Human Services opened its doors early and invited tenants to treat the office as their main source for everything from new apartments to clothing, medication, replacement eye glasses and, by the end of the day, even gas cards to help them and their families travel to work or to search for new homes. Social workers, nurses, state agency officials, and a representative from Congressman Joe Courtney's office were also on hand.

New London — Three months after he dropped out of the race for the Democratic nomination for president, Sen. Chris Dodd still says he might have had a chance - or at least gotten into the fight - if the cable television networks had given candidates like him some airtime during debates.

Drumming up support for his mortgage assistance legislation, however, might prove even tougher for the state's senior senator than jostling for attention with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, told The Day's Editorial Board Monday that the nation's only reasonable response to the mortgage crisis is to use the resources of the government to help the millions of Americans facing foreclosure.

”Inaction is not an option,” Dodd said.

Making loans to people with less-than-pristine credit, albeit at a higher interest rate than to those with better financial histories, was originally intended to help them build wealth, not drive homeowners, municipalities and investors into financial and emotional trauma.

"Subprime lending has become a pejorative [term] and I regret that," Sen. Chris Dodd said Wednesday during a telephone interview on the topic he said occupies "98 percent of my waking hours."