[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1197 Introduced in House (IH)]

103d CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1197

  To amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to prohibit the inclusion of 
 certain information in files and credit reports relating to consumers.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 3, 1993

 Mr. Machtley introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
            Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to prohibit the inclusion of 
 certain information in files and credit reports relating to consumers.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. PROHIBITION ON INCLUSION OF CERTAIN INFORMATION IN FILES AND 
              CREDIT REPORTS RELATING TO CONSUMERS.

    (a) In General.--Section 605 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 
U.S.C. 1681c) is amended--
            (1) in the heading for the section by inserting ``and 
        other'' after ``Obsolete''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(b) Information Regarding Failure To Make Payment During Bank 
Holiday.--
            ``(1) Exclusion from consumer reports.--A consumer 
        reporting agency shall not maintain in the file of a consumer, 
        or furnish a consumer report on a consumer which contains, any 
        information regarding a failure of the consumer to make any 
        payment on an account of the consumer, if--
                    ``(A) the payment became due in a period during 
                which--
                            ``(i) at least \1/3\ of the financial 
                        institutions in the State in which the consumer 
                        resides were simultaneously insolvent for a 
                        period of at least 5 consecutive business days; 
                        and
                            ``(ii) there was in effect a bank holiday 
                        declared by the Governor of the State based on 
                        the insolvency of a non-Federal deposit 
                        insurance fund responsible for insuring 
                        deposits at credit unions, banks, and loan and 
                        investment companies in that State;
                    ``(B) the total amount of funds the consumer had on 
                deposit in financial institutions in that State at the 
                time of the failure to make payment was greater than 
                the total amount of payments due on amounts of the 
                consumer at the time of that failure;
                    ``(C) the consumer's lack of access to funds in 
                financial institutions in that State due to the bank 
                holiday was the primary reason for that failure;
                    ``(D) the consumer submits a request in writing to 
                the consumer reporting agency that the agency exclude 
                the information from either the file of the consumer or 
                consumer reports on the consumer;
                    ``(E) the consumer provides to the consumer 
                reporting agency appropriate validated documentation 
                which demonstrates that the consumer did not have 
                access to funds in financial institutions in the State 
                at the time of the failure; and
                    ``(F) the account is maintained in a current status 
                during the 1-year period ending on the date of the 
                submittal of the request.
            ``(2) Appropriate validated documentation.--The Federal 
        Trade Commission shall prescribe what constitutes appropriate 
        validated documentation for purposes of paragraph (1)(E).
            ``(3) Financial institution defined.--For purposes of this 
        subsection, the term `financial institution' means--
                    ``(A) any bank or savings association, as those 
                terms are defined in section 3 of the Federal Deposit 
                Insurance Act; or
                    ``(B) any Federal credit union or State credit 
                union, as those terms are defined in section 101 of the 
                Federal Credit Union Act.''.
    (b) Conforming Amendment.--The table of sections at the beginning 
of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) is amended in 
the item relating to section 605 by inserting ``and other'' after 
``Obsolete''.

                                 <all>