This NCLC testimony oppose 4 bills discussed at a hearing entitled “Promoting Access to Credit for Everyday Americans”. The bills are giveaways to the Big Three credit bureaus, touted as helping consumers but actually benefiting industry while harming everyday people.
H.R. 5775, the FCRA Liability Harmonization Act, would dramatically reduce accountability for credit bureaus and other companies, including when they wrongfully label innocent consumers as bad borrowers or criminals. The bill eliminates punitive damages under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), no matter how egregious the violation. It caps both statutory damages and actual damages for class actions to $500,000, no matter how many thousands or millions of consumers harmed or the extent of their losses caused by illegal conduct. It also caps attorney’s fees, no matter how complicated the case or obstructionist the defense counsel, gutting the fee shifting nature of the Act, an essential part of the Act’s enforcement/ accountability framework.
H.R. 5402, the Credit Access and Inclusion Act, is touted as helping consumers build credit by including rent and utility payment history, but in reality it overrides state and other federal laws that give consumers control over their personal information and harms consumers struggling to afford high utility bills or obtain affordable rental housing.
H.R. 8141, the Fair Credit Reporting Reseller Accuracy Act, purports to impose new accuracy standards on resellers, but it actually instead gives these companies a free pass from liability. Resellers would be off the hook for errors if they conveyed information unaltered from another company, even if the inaccuracy was obvious on its face, such as facially illogical or contradictory information, or the other company has a history of problems. Many resellers are multi-billion dollar companies (some owned by private equity), with more than adequate resources for compliance.
H.R. 7588, the Eliminating Fraud in the CFPB’s Complaint Database Act, would deliberately sabotage and undermine the CFPB’s ability to help consumers through its consumer response unit. It reduces the transparency of the CFPB’s complaint database by removing complaint narratives even when the consumer wants to share them, hinders consumers’ ability to seek third party assistance in filing complaints, requires consumers to first contact the company and to wait 60 days before they can file a complaint, and allows companies unbridled discretion to reject complaints.
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