This week, the Senate will likely vote on Sen. Sam Brownback’s (R-KS) amendment to Sen. Chris Dodd’s (D-CT) financial regulatory reform legislation, which would exempt auto dealers from regulations set by the proposed Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. The amendment has some outspoken opponents, including the Obama administration and the Pentagon, which said that having the Bureau police auto lending “will assist us in reducing the concerns [service members] have over their financial well-being.”

Brownback, however, is not backing down, and has fired off a letter to the Department of Defense asking “is it the position of the department that auto dealers pose a specific threat to military readiness?” Brownback also demanded “any records the Pentagon keeps of actual complaints or problems ‘that would document the scope of the threat to readiness.’”

As the Dow Jones Newswire put it, “Brownback’s challenge to the Pentagon is just the latest indication of how intense the auto dealer fight has become.” Indeed, as the New York Times profiled today, “through their lobbying arm, the National Automobile Dealers Association, the dealers have hired a crisis communication team, taken out full-page newspaper advertisements, and organized trips to Washington for dealers…to buttonhole lawmakers and make their case.”

But the Pentagon has already preempted Brownback’s question about military readiness, saying that yes, it does feel that auto dealers ripping off service members has a detrimental effect on troop readiness. As Secretary of the Army John McHugh wrote:

In surveys conducted by the Department of Defense, finances rank among the primary causes of stress for most military Families. As auto loans are often the most significant financial obligations of our soldiers — particularly within the junior enlisted grades — we believe that greater government oversight of auto financing and sales for our Soldiers will help protect them and reduce unnecessary financial strain on our already overburdened Army Families. Soldiers who are distracted by financial issues at home are not fully focused on fighting the enemy, thereby decreasing mission readiness. Protection from unprincipled auto lending enables our Soldiers to concentrate on their primary mission — protecting our great Nation.

The Cambridge Winter Center for Financial Institutions Policy has pointed out that “auto finance is demonstrably susceptible to unfair and deceptive practices” — including mark ups and a host of fees — which are “demonstrably not held in check by private market forces alone.” The National Consumer Law Center has also found that auto financiers routinely charge higher markups on loans to minority borrowers.

According to the Center for Responsible Lending, “consumers spend more than $20 billion a year in excess interest by borrowing through a dealership instead of through a bank or credit union.” But Brownback is still willing to take on the Pentagon and the administration in order to exempt auto dealers from rules that, should financial reform pass, all other financiers will have to follow.

Currently, House and Senate negotiators are trying to work out the differences between each chamber’s respective bill reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration. One key difference between the bills is that the House version corrects an inequity in labor law that allows Federal Express to operate under the Railway Labor Act (RLA), which poses higher barriers to union organizing than the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). FedEx’s competitors, such as the United Parcel Service, are governed by the NLRA. The Senate bill does not contain the change.

FedEx has been waging an intense campaign in order to preserve its special treatment, led by CEO Fred Smith, who was George W. Bush’s fraternity brother and has said that “I don’t intend to recognize any unions at Federal Express.” And according to Roll Call, in 15 months the company spent $21.1 million lobbying Congress:

Last year, it ranked 14th among all groups and companies in lobbying budgets, spending more than oil giant BP and defense contractor Lockheed Martin. The Memphis-based company also has tapped politically connected assistance, contracting with 14 outside lobbying firms that employ a number of former Senators. Not only is the Breaux Lott Leadership Group working for FedEx, but its founders, former Sen. John Breaux (D-La.) and former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), are listed on the lobbying disclosure forms as personally working on the account. FedEx hired the international public relations firm Burson-Marsteller to work specifically on this issue.

FedEx has successfully lobbied multiple times to remain classified as an airline (and thus under the RLA), rather than having its ground operation qualified as such, pulling it under the NLRA. This time around, it has threatened to blunt its own growth and scaremongered about medical supply deliveries being delayed if the change in labor law is made.

Tennessee’s two Republican senators, Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, have also pledged to defeat the change. But there’s simply no reason for this inequity to remain law. FedEx’s pilots have already unionized, without the dire consequences that Smith warned about. And in the meantime, FedEx’s drivers are subject to a law that makes it all but impossible to organize and collectively bargain, as they would have to unionize literally the entire company (across the entire country), instead of being allowed to organize at the local level.

Last week, the National Mediation Board — which oversees labor-management relations under the RLA — did away with one inequitable aspect of the antiquated RLA, ensuring that uncast votes in union elections no longer count as votes against the union. Congress would do well to keep the ball rolling, enacting the change taking away the unjustified competitive advantage that FedEx now enjoys.