[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3862 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3862

To amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to prohibit the use of consumer 
    credit checks against prospective and current employees for the 
            purposes of making adverse employment decisions.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 19, 2019

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

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to prohibit the use of consumer 
    credit checks against prospective and current employees for the 
            purposes of making adverse employment decisions.

    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 ``Equal Employment for All Act of 
2019''.

SEC. 2. USE OF CREDIT CHECKS PROHIBITED FOR EMPLOYMENT PURPOSES.

    Section 604 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 1681b) is 
amended--
            (1) in subsection (a)(3)(B), by inserting ``, subject to 
        the requirements of subsection (b)'' after ``purposes''; and
            (2) in subsection (b)--
                    (A) in paragraph (1)--
                            (i) by amending the paragraph heading to 
                        read as follows: ``Use of Consumer Reports for 
                        Employment Purposes'';
                            (ii) in subparagraph (A), by redesignating 
                        clauses (i) and (ii) as subclauses (I) and 
                        (II), respectively, and by moving such 
                        subclauses two ems to the right;
                            (iii) by redesignating subparagraphs (A) 
                        and (B) as clauses (i) and (ii), respectively, 
                        and by moving such clauses two ems to the 
                        right;
                            (iv) by striking the period at the end of 
                        clause (ii) (as so redesignated) and inserting 
                        ``; and'';
                            (v) by striking ``agency may furnish'' and 
                        inserting ``agency--
            ``(A) may furnish''; and
                            (vi) by adding at the end the following new 
                        subparagraph:
                    ``(B) except as provided in paragraph (5), may not 
                furnish a consumer report with respect to any consumer 
                in which any information contained in the report bears 
                on the consumer's creditworthiness, credit standing, or 
                credit capacity to an employer if the employer seeks to 
                use such information in a denial of employment or any 
                other decision made for employment purposes.''; and
                    (B) by adding at the end the following new 
                paragraph:
            ``(5) Requirements for consumer reports bearing on the 
        consumer's creditworthiness, credit standing, or credit 
        capacity.--
                    ``(A) Exceptions.--An employer may use a consumer 
                report with respect to any consumer in which any 
                information contained in the report bears on the 
                consumer's creditworthiness, credit standing, or credit 
                capacity in a decision made for employment purposes or 
                before taking an adverse action for employment purposes 
                only if the consumer authorizes the procurement of the 
                report as described in paragraph (2)(A)(ii) and--
                            ``(i) the consumer applies for, or 
                        currently holds, employment that requires the 
                        consumer to be eligible for access to 
                        classified information; or
                            ``(ii) when otherwise required by law.
                    ``(B) Limitation.--A person who seeks to obtain or 
                use a consumer report with respect to any consumer in 
                which any information contained in the report bears on 
                the consumer's creditworthiness, credit standing, or 
                credit capacity may not deny employment to the consumer 
                or make any other decision for employment purposes with 
                respect to the consumer because the consumer has not 
                authorized the procurement of the report as described 
                in paragraph (2)(A)(ii).''.
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