[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 50 (Monday, May 2, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 2, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                 CONSUMER REPORTING REFORM ACT OF 1994

  The Senate continued with the consideration of the bill.
  Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I apologize to my cosponsor and to my 
colleagues. I am a victim of travel problems on Monday. My flight was 
canceled; thus, my delayed arrival. I apologize for delaying the work 
of the Senate.
  But speaking of delays, Mr. President, this is a matter that has been 
delayed far too long. We have been trying to get legislation enacted 
which will provide for reforms in the Fair Credit Reporting Act. And 
today I think we are very close to a workable compromise.
  I particularly commend my colleague, Senator Bryan, for his strong 
leadership on S. 783, the Consumer Reporting Reform Act of 1994, 
because without it, quite frankly, we would not be here today. Through 
his efforts, I believe we have reached a bipartisan agreement on a bill 
that was anything but bipartisan from the beginning. Senator Bryan has 
worked tirelessly to bring competing, opposing and disparate interests 
together to reach a compromise. I commend him, and I congratulate him 
for his efforts.
  I also want to express thanks to our ranking Republican member on the 
Banking Committee, Senator D'Amato, for his support and willingness to 
make this a bipartisan effort. Again, we could not have been here today 
without his hard work.
  Obviously, commendations are due the chairman, Senator Riegle, for 
granting this bill its day in court. I believe it is a true testament 
to his leadership that we have been able to reach agreement on what 
has, in the past, been such a contentious piece of legislation.
  Some of you may know, I have been working to pass legislation to 
reform the FCRA for the last 4 years. I was beginning to wonder if we 
would see the day when it might reach the full Senate for 
consideration. Senator Bryan and I, together with the cosponsorship of 
the chairman, introduced this legislation on April 7 of last year. A 
hearing was held in May, and then S. 783 passed the committee by a vote 
of 15 to 4 in late October.
  The Fair Credit Reporting Act is ripe for revision. I have heard too 
many stories and I know my colleagues have heard too many horror 
stories not to believe this act requires reform. The act was written 
long before computer technology was as sophisticated as it is today. 
These technological advances have meant a drastic increase in the 
amount of information that may be kept on each and every one of us as 
an individual. I think the current law simply just does not do an 
adequate job of protecting the consumer, the individual's rights with 
respect to their credit history.
  For example, currently, the law only requires credit bureaus to 
reinvestigate within a reasonable time. It was not uncommon, and I had 
discussions today, which I will share with you in a minute, where it 
takes months, even years to get an error taken out of a credit report, 
to get the report cleaned up. Even if you did succeed in getting the 
incorrect information removed, there was nothing to prevent it from 
being put back on your report.
  I believe that the single most important provision in this 
legislation is the 30-day limit on the reinvestigation procedure. If 
disputed information cannot be verified or is found to be inaccurate 
within 30 days, then it is wiped off the credit report and cannot be 
reinserted without a notice to the consumer. This is the cornerstone of 
the legislation, the most significant improvement over current law.
  This should help all consumers who find out right before they close 
on their mortgage that there is something negative on their credit 
report to get the incorrect information removed promptly, and to 
protect themselves against significant loss of precious time and money.
  One of the people I talked with today lost a home because he and his 
wife were unable to clear up incorrect information on their credit 
report that made it impossible for them to find financing for the home. 
It was an error, but they could not get the credit bureau to change it 
in time. So he lost his opportunity to purchase the house that he and 
his wife wanted. That is what an improper credit report can do.
  I realize credit bureaus have voluntarily instituted a 30-day 
standard in recent years, and I congratulate them for it. But there is 
no provision in the law holding them to it. I do congratulate the 
credit bureaus for taking steps to make the system more accurate, but, 
again, I feel that this can best be assured for the future if 
legislation is passed. It was the threat of Federal legislation that 
has cleaned up the system, and if we do not pass legislation and the 
threat is removed, there is always the opportunity that the system 
could go back to its old ways.
  Congress needs to address the concerns about accuracy in the system 
and the need for consumer privacy. As I said earlier, I met with some 
of my constituents in St. Louis this morning to listen to their horror 
stories of how they had struggled, and struggled, and struggled to get 
mistakes off their credit reports. They have met with many of the same 
obstacles that millions of other consumers have faced: Months of 
waiting for the credit reports to be fixed, credit granters who are 
unresponsive, no live person to talk to who will listen to their 
complaints. The problems are not new. We, who have been hearing about 
these problems in our offices, as I am sure my colleagues have in 
theirs, have been trying for years to find a way to address them.
  I explained to the constituents I met with this morning how this 
bill, S. 783, will address the problems. It traditionally has taken a 
long time for the credit bureaus to respond and fix credit reports. I 
told them this bill would require the process to be completed in 30 
days.
  As I said before, if the information in the report cannot be verified 
by the creditor who submitted it within 30 days, it would be removed 
from the report and it cannot be reinserted unless the consumer is 
notified.
  I already mentioned the person who had lost a house. He is an 
attorney. He lost the house he wanted to purchase because he could not 
get his credit report cleaned up in time to get the financing to meet 
the deadlines under the purchase contract.
  Another person who came in to talk to us today spent over 1 year and 
2 months trying to get his mother's credit history off his credit 
report. He was not living at home; he did not have any joint accounts. 
He had to go to the Better Business Bureau and the State attorney 
general. It took him over a year to get it off.
  Another one of the people who talked with me today works in the 
consumer finance and credit department of an automobile dealership. He 
is in the system and he spent 10 weeks trying to get somebody else's 
information, someone who had a similar name to his--his last name is 
Smith--off his credit report. It took him 10 weeks to get that report 
cleaned up. He said he could not get credit during that time.
  Another woman who had a very frustrating experience spent months 
trying to contact the credit bureau and found that she never, in all 
those months, talked to anybody but an answering machine. She never was 
able to talk to a live human being. Those complaints go on and on, and 
I believe they are echoed in many places around the country.
  Because consumers have complained to us that they can get no one at 
the credit bureaus to talk to them, this bill requires the credit 
bureaus to establish toll free numbers and have people--humans--
available for consumers to talk to about their reports.
  When consumers are turned down for credit based on information in the 
report, under current law, they are entitled to a free copy of their 
report.
  Our bill provides, in addition, that consumers shall receive a 
summary of their rights and, upon completion of the reinvestigation, 
another free copy of the report so they can check to make sure it has 
been fixed. Also, the consumer can get another free copy during the 
next year to make sure the mistake does not reappear.
  One gentleman who showed up at the meeting today, whom we had not 
talked to before, spent a very frustrating several weeks getting his 
report cleaned up. They proudly showed him the copy of the report that 
had been cleaned up. They had taken off the previous misinformation 
about somebody with a name the same as his but with a different Social 
Security number, and they had added a major new credit mistake--the 
same person, different Social Security number, same name. They 
presented him the cleaned up copy of the report, but it had the new 
bogey with bad consumer information.
  These are the kinds of problems we can address through this measure. 
I think we are very close to developing a compromise. Senator Bryan and 
I are working on a managers' amendment.
  There are some other problems that have been raised about the bill. I 
believe we can continue to work on this delicate balancing act. We have 
listened to reasonable concerns on all sides, and I think, with the 
compromise, we perhaps can improve it some. But this basic structure is 
a measure that we can and should pass so that consumers in America 
today will not face the problem of being unable to get credit to buy a 
car, to buy a home, to finance their other activities because somebody 
who may have a similar name, may not even have a similar name, has a 
bad credit history that is placed on their report.
  Mr. President, I look forward to working on this measure tomorrow. I 
believe the Senator from Nevada has some matters in wrap-up. Is that 
correct?
  Mr. BRYAN. The Senator from Missouri is correct.
  If I might, Mr. President, I say to my colleague from Missouri, in 
his absence I noted his steadfast support and his diligence over many, 
many years in bringing this piece of legislation to the floor.
  I would just like to say in his presence that we would not be where 
we are today had it not been for his leadership as well in the 
bipartisan working effort that he and I have put together with some of 
our other colleagues and his staff, and I salute the Senator from 
Missouri for his commitment. Just as he experienced in St. Louis, every 
Member of this body will hear from constituents who have problems 
similar to that which the constituent of the Senator from Missouri 
shared with him this morning and as I have shared previously in my 
opening statement.

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