[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 123 Introduced in House (IH)]







111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 123

    To amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to establish additional 
reporting requirements to enhance the detection of identity theft, and 
                          for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 6, 2009

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

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to establish additional 
reporting requirements to enhance the detection of identity theft, 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 ``Credit Agencies Identity Theft 
Responsibilities Act of 2009''.

SEC. 2. IDENTITY THEFT REPORTING.

    (a) In General.--Section 608 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 
U.S.C. 1681f) is amended--
            (1) by striking ``Notwithstanding the provisions of section 
        604'' and inserting ``(a) In General.--Notwithstanding the 
        provisions of section 604''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(b) Suspicion of Identity Theft.--
            ``(1) In general.--If, on the basis of information on 
        consumers maintained or controlled by a consumer reporting 
        agency, the consumer reporting agency has reason to suspect 
        that identity theft may be occurring or may have occurred with 
        respect to any consumer, the consumer reporting agency shall 
        report the suspicion of identity theft, a brief description of 
        the basis for the suspicion, together with any information 
        described in subsection (a) relating to any consumer name 
        involved to the United States Secret Service for review and 
        appropriate action, including the provision of information to 
        the Attorney General for criminal prosecution. If the Secret 
        Service has reason to believe that any suspected case of 
        identity theft reported under this paragraph involves any 
        suspicion of terrorism or immigration violations, the Secret 
        Service shall forward the information received under this 
        paragraph to the Federal Bureau of Investigation or the 
        Department of Homeland Security, respectively.
            ``(2) Basis for suspicion of identity theft.--For purposes 
        of this subsection, a consumer reporting agency shall have 
        reason to suspect that identity theft may be occurring or may 
        have occurred under any of the following circumstances:
                    ``(A) The names of 3 or more consumers each have 
                the same Social Security account number associated with 
                the names.
                    ``(B) Three or more home addresses are associated 
                with the name of any consumer in any 1-year period.
                    ``(C) More than 1 date of birth is associated with 
                the name of any consumer or any Social Security account 
                number.
                    ``(D) Any other circumstance the Commission may 
                prescribe by regulation.
            ``(3) Duty to review.--Each consumer reporting agency shall 
        establish procedures, in accordance with regulations the 
        Commission shall prescribe, for reviewing, at regular time 
        intervals, all information on consumers maintained or 
        controlled by the agency to determine whether there is any 
        basis for suspicion of identity theft with respect to any 
        consumer.''.
    (b) Penalty.--The Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 1681 et 
seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following new section:
``Sec. 630. Criminal penalty
    ``Any individual who is an officer, director, employee, or agent of 
a consumer reporting agency and who intentionally causes the consumer 
reporting agency to fail to comply with any requirement of section 
608(b) shall be imprisoned for not more than 2 years, fined under title 
18, United States Code, or both.''.
    (c) Clerical Amendment.--The table of sections for the Fair Credit 
Reporting Act is amended by inserting after the item relating to 
section 629 the following new item:

``630. Criminal penalty.''.
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