SALEM (AP) — Angered by insinuations that some lawmakers have been bought off with campaign contributions from the payday loan industry, a House committee chairman says he is going to shelve a bill to clamp a lid on rates charged by payday loan shops.

"The bill's dead,'' Rep. Wayne Krieger said at week's end, a day after his committee abruptly canceled a public hearing on the Senate-passed bill to limit interest on the short-term payday loans to 15 percent.

Krieger and other Republicans are upset because a campaign finance watchdog group this past week released figures showing that payday lenders and other financial groups opposing the bill contributed nearly $150,000 last fall to legislative candidates — most of it to Republicans.

Among the top recipients of those campaign dollars were House Speaker Karen Minnis, who got $14,500, and House Majority Leader Wayne Scott, who got $11,000, according to the Money in Politics Research Action Project.

The group's release said the contributions "help to explain why regulations on the payday loan industry stalled in the House'' after winning Senate passage.

It also included a statement from Ron Cease, a former Democratic legislator from Portland and Oregon Food Bank representative, who said "money is clearly the driving force behind this issue.''

"Out of a desperate need for money, thousands of hardworking Oregonians are charged outrageous interest rates and predatory lenders are making a handsome profit,'' Cease said. "Now we have to ask if money is stopping this bill from receiving a fair hearing and a vote.''

House Republicans don't quibble with the campaign spending totals listed in the report. But Scott, the House majority leader, said he was "offended'' by the suggestion that he and other House Republicans were sitting on the bill because they had gotten the campaign money.

"To me, that doesn't fly. I am not for sale to anyone,'' the Canby lawmaker said.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski earlier in the week had called on House Republicans to give the bill a hearing, saying the measure as passed by the Democrat-controlled Senate is one of the key consumer protection bills of the 2005 session.

Krieger appeared to relent on Thursday, scheduling a public hearing at which representatives from both sides were invited to testify on whether the payday loan industry in Oregon needs to be more tightly regulated.

But then the Gold Beach lawmaker learned of the watchdog group's news release about campaign contributions, and he quickly canceled the committee's hearing.

"When someone is making an effort to give you a hearing, slapping legislators around is not very good politics,'' he said. "It was a divisive thing to do, and I'm not going to put up with it in this committee.''

One of the key supporters of the bill, Phillip Kennedy-Wong of Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, says he isn't giving up on the bill, despite GOP anger over the campaign finance disclosures.

"It is too important an issue to just let it die,'' he said. ‘We're going to keep working for basic consumer protections to prevent people from getting gouged and falling into a debt trap.''

The measure was approved by the Senate in late May after sponsors said it's time Oregon followed many other states in capping interest on payday loans, which often are secured with postdated checks that lenders cash on a borrower's payday.

Supporters said that restricting lenders to 15 percent of the loan value as interest on a two-week loans is the equivalent of 391 percent interest when figured on an annual basis. Advocates of the measure have reported some lenders charge as much as 600 percent interest.

The measure also would limit loan amounts to $1,000 or 25 percent of a borrowers' gross monthly income, whichever is less. Lenders also could not renew a loan unless at least 25 percent of the amount borrowed had been repaid.

Among those who have testified in support of the bill is Dena Speer, a Portland woman who got into financial trouble when she and her husband took out payday loans to help cover their rent payments after being hit with unexpected medical bills.

Speer said she and her husband took out nine payday loans, ranging from $200 to $400, and eventually ended up having to pay $8,000 in rollover fees, interest charges and insufficient funds charges from her bank.

"When you're in a desperate situation, you're not thinking straight because you need the money quickly,'' she said.

A spokeswoman for the Consumer Federation of America said she still hopes Oregon lawmakers will pass the bill, which she said would put Oregon in line with about 10 states that cap the short-term loans at 15 percent.

"This is a very modest reform,'' Jean Ann Fox said from the group's headquarters in Washington. "The payday loan industry is doing very well in states with that rate cap.''

But a lobbyist for the payday loan industry in Oregon said she will continue to work to defeat the bill.

Annette Price of the Community Financial Services Association says payday lenders help needy people with poor credit who have few or no other options and that they view the short-term charges as fees, not as yearly interest rates.

"We have hundreds of thousands of transactions each year in Oregon, and only a few complaints. We don't see that there is a problem that needs to be fixed by the Legislature.''