Committee Democrats Work to Reform Broken Credit Reporting System

WASHINGTON – Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, convened a full Committee markup that will include bills introduced by Committee Democrats to make critical reforms to the broken credit reporting system.

This markup follows a February hearing entitled, “Who’s Keeping Score? Holding Credit Bureaus Accountable and Repairing a Broken System,” where Committee Democrats held the nation’s major credit bureaus accountable.

The bills introduced by Members to reform credit reporting, credit scores and the credit reporting agencies include:

H.R. 3614, the Restricting Use of Credit Checks for Employment Decisions Act, a bill to ban the use of credit information for most employment decisions, except when required by law or for a national security clearance.

This legislation was introduced by Rep. Al Lawson (D-FL).

H.R. 3618, the Free Credit Scores for Consumers Act of 2019, a bill that would require consumer reporting agencies to give consumers free copies of their credit scores that are used by creditors.

This legislation was introduced by Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH).

H.R. 3621, the Student Borrower Credit Improvement Act, a bill to help private student loan borrowers remove adverse information for certain defaulted or delinquent loans when they demonstrate a history of timely repayment.

This legislation was introduced by Rep. Ayana Pressley (D-MA).

H.R. 3622, the Restoring Unfairly Impaired Credit and Protecting Consumers Act, a bill that would shorten the time period in which adverse information would stay on a consumer report from seven years to four years.

This legislation was introduced by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).

H.R. 3629, the Clarity in Credit Score Formation Act of 2019, a bill to establish clear federal oversight of the development of credit scoring models by directing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to set standards.

This legislation was introduced by Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA).

H.R. 3642, the Improving Credit Reporting for All Consumers Act, a bill to improve the process for consumers to resolve inaccuracies on their credit reports, including by creating a new right to appeal credit report decisions, and direct the CFPB to develop minimum standards for the credit reporting agencies.

This legislation was introduced by Rep. Alma Adams (D-NC).