The financial industry is scurrying to jack up interest rates on credit cards before new and more stringent federal laws take effect in February. But now one proposal in Congress would immediately freeze rate hikes on existing balances.

Senator Dodd, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said his bill was necessary because banks were raising rates “to squeeze customers” before the remaining provisions of law took effect in February.

The new credit card law, which was passed in May, seeks to stop banks from arbitrarily raising interest rates.

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Scott Talbott, senior vice president for government affairs at the Financial Service Roundtable, said his organization, which represents large financial institutions, opposed the bill to freeze rates. He said the bill was based on the faulty premise that credit card interest rates were going up because of legislation.

Credit card debt is a dire problem for young people in particular, due to aggressive marketing and crippling interest rates that are, until new laws are enforced, controlled on a whim by the banks that issue them.