[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3217 Introduced in House (IH)]







107th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3217

To allow consumers a temporary 2-week grace period for payment of bills 
 due to the extraordinary circumstances resulting from the disruptions 
 and general uncertainty surrounding United States mail, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            November 1, 2001

   Mr. Ford introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Financial Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To allow consumers a temporary 2-week grace period for payment of bills 
 due to the extraordinary circumstances resulting from the disruptions 
 and general uncertainty surrounding United States mail, and for other 
                               purposes.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Late Fee Relief Act''.

SEC. 2. TEMPORARY APPLICATION OF 2-WEEK GRACE PERIOD FOR FINANCIAL 
              SERVICES CUSTOMERS.

    (a) In General.--During the 6-month period beginning on the date of 
the enactment of this Act, no financial service business may--
            (1) impose any late fee or additional financing fee on any 
        consumer for the failure of the consumer to make any payment by 
        the due date of such payment;
            (2) provide any information with respect to such payment 
        that is adverse to the interest of the consumer or would 
        adversely affect the consumer's credit rating or credit 
        standing to a consumer reporting agency; or
            (3) take any other action that is adverse to the interests 
        of the consumer as a consequence of such failure,
unless the payment is not received by the end of the 2-week period 
beginning on such due date.
    (b) Enforcement.--
            (1) In general.--The requirements of this section, 
        including any regulations prescribed under subsection (c), 
        shall be enforced under sections 108, 112, and 130 of the Truth 
        in Lending Act and any requirement of this section, or any such 
        regulation, shall be treated as a requirement of that Act.
            (2) Application.--Section 130 of the Truth in Lending Act 
        shall be applied for purposes of this section by substituting 
        the term ``financial services business'' for the term 
        ``creditor'' wherever such term appears in such section 130.
    (c) Regulations.--The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve 
System may prescribe such regulations as the Board considers 
appropriate to carry out the requirements of this Act, including 
further definition of terms.
    (d) Definitions.--For purposes of this section, the following 
definitions shall apply:
            (1) Consumer.--The term ``consumer'' means an individual 
        who engages in a transaction with a financial services business 
        primarily for personal, family, or household purposes.
            (2) Due date.--The term ``due date'' means the later of--
                    (A) the date by which a payment is due; or
                    (B) the date by which a late fee would be imposed, 
                but for this subsection, for the failure to make such 
                payment.
            (3) Financial activities.--
                    (A) In general.--The term ``financial 
                activities''--
                            (i) means banking activities, securities 
                        activities, insurance activities, or 
                        commodities activities; and
                            (ii) includes all activities that are 
                        financial in nature or are incidental to a 
                        financial activity (as defined under section 
                        4(k) of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956).
                    (B) Rule of construction.--Subparagraph (A) shall 
                not be construed as creating any inference, including 
                any negative inference, concerning the types or extent 
                of activities that are appropriately recognized as 
                activities that are financial in nature, or are 
                incidental to a financial activity, for purposes of 
                section 4 of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956.
            (4) Financial services business.--The term ``financial 
        services business''--
                    (A) means any person engaged in the business of 
                conducting financial activities; and
                    (B) includes any creditor (as defined in section 
                103 of the Truth in Lending Act).
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