[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 124 (Wednesday, September 10, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H8118-H8122]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           FAIR AND ACCURATE CREDIT TRANSACTIONS ACT OF 2003

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 360 and rule 
XVIII, the Chair declares the House in the Committee of the Whole House 
on the State of the Union for the consideration of the bill, H.R. 2622.

[[Page H8119]]

  The Chair designates the gentleman from Idaho (Mr. Simpson) as 
chairman of the Committee of the Whole, and requests the gentleman from 
New York (Mr. Quinn) to assume the chair temporarily.

                              {time}  1439


                     In the Committee of the Whole

  Accordingly, the House resolved itself into the Committee of the 
Whole House on the State of the Union for the consideration of the bill 
(H.R. 2622) to amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act, to prevent identity 
theft, improve resolution of consumer disputes, improve the accuracy of 
consumer records, make improvements in the use of, and consumer access 
to, credit information, and for other purposes.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The CHAIRMAN pro tempore (Mr. Quinn). Pursuant to the rule, the bill 
is considered as having been read the first time.
  Under the rule, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Oxley) and the gentleman 
from Massachusetts (Mr. Frank) each will control 30 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Oxley).
  Mr. OXLEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 6 minutes.
  Mr. Chairman, I am proud to stand before the House today with this 
important bipartisan jobs bill. When 9/11 hit our country, our 
committee responded quickly with bipartisan legislation: the U.S. 
PATRIOT Act and the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act. When the securities 
markets fell into crisis with corporate scandals, we swiftly passed the 
Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Today, as the preemptions in our national credit 
markets are set to expire, we again have responded swiftly and 
responsibly with a bipartisan solution to keep the American economy 
stable and growing.
  Since the Fair Credit Reporting Act passed with its amendments, we 
have achieved some of the lowest mortgage rates and credit rates on 
record, with more competitive offerings for consumers than ever before. 
Mortgage and credit approvals that used to take weeks or even months 
are now completed in a matter of minutes, giving consumers more 
flexibility, making credit more affordable and available, and creating 
more jobs and economic growth for all Americans.
  American consumers and workers also enjoy unprecedented mobility 
thanks to our national credit system. According to the Congressional 
Research Service, our national credit standards have enabled the U.S. 
to achieve one of the most mobile societies with 14.5 percent of our 
population moving in any given year, and lower-income individuals more 
likely to move than higher-income groups. Throughout modern history, 
national economies have risen and fallen based, in large part, on the 
flexibility and mobility of labor and management. This freedom is 
possible only because consumers have portable credit histories and can 
move from State to State. These advantages of our national system, 
greater choices, lower interest rates, faster and more available 
credit, mobility, jobs, and economic growth begin to be lost if we fail 
to enact legislation by the end of this year and allow our national 
system to expire.
  In addition to preserving our national credit system, the FACT Act is 
one of the most comprehensive consumer protection bills that this 
Congress will enact this year. The FTC released a study just last week 
on one of the most troublesome problems that consumers are faced with 
today, and that is identity theft. The FTC found that 10 million 
Americans were victimized by identity thieves last year, costing 
consumers and businesses over $50 billion, not counting the 300 million 
hours spent by victims to try to repair damaged credit records. And 
these victim numbers have been skyrocketing. Congress needs to pass 
strong uniform identity theft protections and needs to do it now.
  The FACT Act fights identity theft based on language drawn roughly 
half each from bipartisan Democrat and Republican proposals. Consumers 
would be able to place fraud alerts in their credit reports to prevent 
identity thieves from opening accounts in their names. They can block 
fraudulent income resulting from identity theft and benefit from 
provisions ensuring greatly improved accuracy of information before it 
ever gets reported. Consumers would be given the right to access their 
credit scores, along with free credit reports so that every American 
could easily and annually review their credit reports to ensure that no 
funny business has occurred. And they would be given greater access to 
information to better understand their rights, to more easily dispute 
inaccuracies with real investigations required, and the ability to know 
in advance if any lender is going to submit negative information into 
their records.
  We have also greatly increased the privacy protections for all 
Americans. We have simplified and made it easier for consumers to limit 
unsolicited marketing offers. In combination with the FTC's do-not-call 
proposals, this will help every American consumer control the marketing 
information that they wish to receive. Equally important, we provide 
critical new protections for consumers' medical information. After this 
bill is enacted, lenders will not be able to use medical information 
without an individual's consent, nor will they be able to share or have 
access to unencrypted private medical information without consent. 
These are important benefits that will protect consumers in every 
State.
  I expect that a small number of Members may want to prune back this 
legislation, unintentionally weakening the national credit system and 
undercutting the uniform consumer protections this bill provides to all 
Americans. But allowing different State standards on key protections 
will hurt, not help, consumers. What happens when a consumer living in 
one State and vacationing in a second is trying to resolve an identity 
theft occurring in a third State? And what can happen with consumers 
and businesses who will not know what State law applies and will find 
themselves caught in conflicting State requirements that cannot be 
adequately complied with. If a thief steals a Californian's identity 
and tries to open an account in another State with an identity from 
somewhere else, the consumer will not get any extra protection without 
a national standard.
  The FACT Act protects all consumers equally. We have taken the best 
reasonable consumer protections from all States and made them into a 
uniform standard that everyone in all States can understand and comply 
with. We have strong identity theft protections, greatly improved 
access by consumers to their credit information, vastly improved 
ability for consumers to correct their records, and greatly expanded 
privacy protections.
  Members today have a choice. We can protect our national credit 
system, along with all of the jobs and economic growth it creates, in 
addition to giving consumers solutions to identity theft and access to 
improved credit records. We can fulfill our responsibility to the 
American people by bolstering the expiring national credit system with 
permanent extension.

                              {time}  1445

  Or, Congress can shirk its duty and water down protections that apply 
equally to all Americans. Can you imagine going back to a time when you 
could only get a credit card from a local bank; mortgages and car loans 
took weeks to approve, and high interest rates made credit unavailable 
and unaffordable for many Americans.
  This legislation was overwhelmingly approved by our committee on a 
bipartisan 61-3 vote. We have received support from almost every 
relevant federal regulator. I stand with the recorded support of almost 
every other member of our committee, regardless of party affiliation, 
with pride and conviction to urge a vote for this important 
legislation.
  Mr. Chairman, I would particularly like to thank the gentleman from 
Alabama (Mr. Bachus) and the ranking member, the gentleman from 
Massachusetts (Mr. Frank) for their tireless efforts in crafting this 
product. We stand in full support and ask for Members strong positive 
vote for this legislation.
  Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my team.
  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as 
I may consume.
  Mr. Chairman, I thank my colleague and chairman, the gentleman from 
Ohio (Mr. Oxley), for his kind words. I do have to correct him. At this 
point,

[[Page H8120]]

the way I feel, it would be incorrect to say that my efforts were 
tireless, but I am pleased we brought this bill to the floor.
  I urge Members to vote for this bill. There will be some amendments 
and I will be supporting some. I will be opposing others. I do not 
think they go to the heart of the bill. There is one particularly 
important amendment that will be offered by the ranking member of the 
Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government Sponsored 
Enterprises of the Committee on Financial Services, the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Kanjorski).
  We are here today because there were sunsets in the original bill in 
1996. The fact that we had to come back to renew this has given us the 
opportunity to make some significant consumer improvements, and I agree 
with the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Oxley). I will vote for this bill 
because if it becomes law, consumers will have significant new 
protections in many areas.
  They will not be all that I would have liked. For someone who serves 
in the minority, this bill, I think, shows both the opportunities but 
also the inherit limitations of being in the minority. That is a bill 
where we worked together. We worked together where the majority was 
predominant as democracy requires. I appreciate the chance we had to 
make some improvements that Members on our side wanted.
  In many cases, the request for improvements, for instance, identity 
theft, where the gentlewoman from Oregon (Ms. Hooley) led our task 
force, they were mutually agreed on.
  So I think we have a bill that is better than existing law and that, 
frankly, contains more new consumer protections than any legislation I 
have seen in a while. On the other hand, I should be very clear, this 
is not the bill that I believe we would have written if we were in the 
majority. There are some areas where we would have written it 
differently, but that is the nature of the process. And given where we 
were and the negotiations we were able to do, the votes that we were 
able to take, we have a product that I think does the best possible in 
these circumstances to do the two important things we have to do: One, 
as the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Oxley) has said, help the market to 
function.
  The free market is a wonderful engine for the creation of wealth. And 
what we have done here today is to reenact some rules that allow it to 
go forward in the most efficient possible way. We have also shown, I 
think, that it is entirely consistent with a respect for and 
understanding of the free market, to protect consumers in various ways.
  The market is an excellent instrument, but it is not a perfect one. 
It will make some mistakes. There will be errors. There will be abuse. 
I believe our job as legislators is to try to write legislation, create 
rules that allow the market to function while protecting people in ways 
that do not unduly interfere with the market. And I think, as I said in 
this bill, we have moved significantly in that direction. So I would 
urge Members to be supportive.
  I do note that after this bill, let me explain this to people, after 
this bill passed through committee, the State of California did adopt 
additional legislation in the area of privacy. Much of that legislation 
is unaffected by what we do today. One section out of that legislation 
would be affected by what we do today. Had California acted earlier, we 
might perhaps have been able to address that in our deliberations. 
Given the way things work, once a bill is out of committee, that 
becomes harder.
  I know from friends from California are going to continue, on our 
side, to try to make efforts, whether it is here or later on in the 
Conference Committee, and these are decisions that we will try to make 
to try to improve that. I regret this, but given the timing, that was 
something we could not control.
  With all of that, the basic point to me is that we have a bill today 
that continues the preemptions, which I believe help the market 
function at its most efficient in granting credit and adds to, in most 
cases, the consumer protections, including some areas like identity 
theft and medical privacy which had not, in 1996, been on everybody's 
agenda. So I hope that we will go through the amendment process. I hope 
a couple of amendments will win, but in any case, I will urge Members 
to vote for this bill as the best accommodation that we were able to 
achieve in this circumstance of the duty to make it possible for the 
free market to function, while at the same time, providing those 
protections for consumers which would not automatically come from the 
market.
  Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. OXLEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from 
Illinois (Mrs. Biggert).
  Mrs. BIGGERT. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding me 
time.
  Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of H.R. 2622. I want to thank 
the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Oxley) and the subcommittee chairman, the 
gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Bachus), the ranking member, the gentleman 
from Massachusetts (Mr. Frank), the gentlewoman from Oregon (Ms. 
Hooley), the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Moore) and all the co-sponsors 
for their hard work on this extremely important piece of legislation.
  Mr. Chairman, to its sponsors and co-sponsors, every bill is an 
important bill, but there are a few bills that we will take up this 
session or this Congress that are as critically important to our 
economy as reauthorizing and making permanent the expiring protections 
contained in the Fair Credit Reporting Act, or FCRA.
  The FCRA may not be a household word, but it nonetheless touches 
virtually every aspect of our lives and our economy. Without this 
reauthorization, there could be no national credit system. Without a 
national credit system, there will be less credit, slower credit, 
inaccurate credit, inefficient credit, and in many cases, no credit at 
all. Less, slower, accurate, inefficient and no credit will lead 
inevitably to less spending, slower growth, lower incomes and fewer 
jobs. That would be noticed by the American consumer and would be a 
disaster for the American economy. And this is why H.R. 2622 is a must-
pass bill for us this session.
  I want to add that H.R. 2622 is much more important than a routine 
reauthorization of a critically important program. Thanks to the hard 
work of many of my colleagues on both sides of this aisle, it is a much 
improved version of its predecessor because it addresses the new 
challenges and problems created by new technologies. Chief among those 
are the provisions addressing identity theft which barely existed 5 
years ago when we last reauthorized expiring conditions of FCRA.
  In 2002, 14,777 complaints were registered with the Federal Trade 
Commission from victims of identify theft from my home State of 
Illinois alone. These consumers reported losses of almost $6.8 million 
to identity theft. H.R. 2622 is a good bill that provides important new 
protections for consumers and stops identity theft before it happens. 
Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to 
the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Maloney).
  (Mrs. MALONEY asked and was given permission to revise and extend her 
remarks.)
  Mrs. MALONEY. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding me 
time. I thank him and the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Oxley) for their 
leadership on this important bill of which I am proud to be an original 
co-sponsor.
  This is a strong bipartisan product that will benefit consumers as 
well as the entire U.S. economy. It will help the market to function 
more efficiently, and as an example of this bipartisanship, I am very 
pleased that it was the wisdom of the Committee on Financial Services 
to include my amendment in Section 509.
  This amendment requires clear and conspicuous disclosure of credit 
card companies' ability to raise a customer's interest rate even though 
the customer makes all of their payment on time. This bill makes 
groundbreaking advances in fighting ID theft and in providing new 
rights to make sure the information on credit reports is accurate, 
allows free credit reports, access to credit scores, and protections 
for medical record. These advances are so significant that the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Kanjorski) and I have extended the

[[Page H8121]]

sunset amendment we will offer later in this debate from 7 years, which 
we first proposed, to 9 years. I believe this amendment is critically 
important.
  All the consumer protections in this bill are the result of the 
current sunset which forced Congress to reexamine the FCRA before the 
end of the year.
  I urge my colleagues to support this legislation because it is 
incredibly important to the economy. For my district in New York, 
passage of this legislation means tourists who come to shop in our 
famous retail sector will be able to receive instant credit, no matter 
how many State lines they cross on their way to New York City.
  Nationally this legislation is critical to home mortgage financing 
and refinancing that have kept the housing market booming during the 
recent economic downturn.
  I urge a ``yes'' vote on this bipartisan legislation. It is important 
for consumers and for the U.S. economy.
  I am pleased to rise in support of H.R. 2622 the Fair and Accurate 
Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act).
  This is a strong bipartisan product that will benefit consumers as 
well as the entire U.S. economy.
  From the beginning of the consideration of the FCRA reauthorization 
this year Chairmen Oxley and Bachus and Ranking Members Frank and 
Sanders have conducted a thorough, open process that has created a 
consensus bill that I hope will be overwhelmingly approved.
  As an example of this bipartisanship, I am especially pleased that it 
was the wisdom of the Financial Services Committee to include my 
amendment in Section 509.
  This amendment requires clear and conspicuous disclosure of credit 
card companies' ability to raise a customer's interest rate even though 
the customer makes all their payments on time.
  This devious practice is known as ``bait and switch'' where a 
consumer's low interest rate is increased to 20 percent or higher 
simply because they may have taken out a new mortgage or some other 
liability.
  A recent New York Times article documented just such a case where an 
Illinois doctor had his rate go from 6.2 percent to 16.99 percent when 
he took out a mortgage.
  This legislation makes ground breaking advances in fighting I.D. 
theft, which is now more often practiced by organized crime, and in 
providing new rights to make sure the information on credit reports is 
accurate, allows free credit reports and access to credit scores.
  These advances are so significant that Congressman Kanjorski and I 
have extended the sunset amendment we will offer later in the debate 
from the seven years we first proposed to nine years.
  I believe this sunset amendment is critically important.
  All the consumer protections in this bill are the result of the 
current sunset which forced Congress to re-examine the FCRA before the 
end of this year.
  I urge my colleagues to support this legislation because it is 
incredibly important to the economy.
  For my district in New York, passage of this legislation means 
tourists who come to shop in our famous retail sector will be able to 
receive instant credit no matter how many state lines they cross on 
their way to New York City.
  Nationally, this legislation is critical to home mortgage financing 
and re-financings that have kept the housing market booming during the 
recent economic downturn.
  I urge a yes vote for this important legislation.
  Mr. OXLEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from 
Oklahoma (Mr. Lucas).
  Mr. LUCAS of Oklahoma. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of H.R. 
2622, the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act. I am a cosponsor 
of this important piece of legislation because I feel that 
reauthorizing uniform national standards included in the Fair Credit 
Reporting Act will ensure America continues to have the best credit 
system in the world.
  Mr. Chairman, I came to Congress in 1994 and joined the Committee on 
Banking, now the Committee on Financial Services, because I knew that 
one of the common needs of my congressional district was capital. We 
were capital starved and I wanted to be a part of the committee that 
would have influence over the cost of and the availability of credit. 
And that is why I fully support this bill. It protects my constituents' 
access to fast and affordable credit, which is vital in today's 
economic times.
  I also support this bill because it includes measures to protect the 
explosion of the identity theft in this country. Last week the FTC 
reported 9.9 million Americans were victims of identity theft in the 
last year, and that is a frightening statistic to all of us.
  H.R. 2622 imposes meaningful new obligations on financial 
institutions to prevent identity theft and to ensure the accuracy of 
credit information. The uniform national credit reporting standards 
have lowered costs and increased choices and conveniences for all of 
our constituents. I urge my colleagues to support this important 
reauthorization.
  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Chairman, I yield 4 minutes to the 
gentlewoman from Oregon (Ms. Hooley) who served as the Chair of our 
task force on identity theft and who is responsible for much of the 
good material in this bill.
  Ms. HOOLEY of Oregon. Mr. Chairman, in August of 2001, a constituent 
of mine had her purse stolen, an unfortunate incident that caused her 
some initial annoyance, but one she quickly forgot after doing all the 
responsible things like filing a police report, cancelling her credit 
cards, notifying the major credit bureaus of the theft. She took those 
responsible steps and put it behind her.
  She took those steps and put it behind her. Two years later when she 
was called about a new computer being delivered to her home, a computer 
she never ordered, she decided to investigate what was going on, and 
what she found out was that there were seven credit cards being used in 
her name and two cell phones, cell phones and cards that she had never 
requested or never seen.
  Since that time, this woman has spent many hours on the phone with e-
mails and research trying to clean up her credit files and protect 
herself from future theft. She said to me she feels like a ball in a 
pinball machine, being constantly bounced around from agency to agency, 
from credit bureau to credit bureau.
  At one point a Portland police officer actually suggested to her that 
it might be easier to her if she would actually change her legal 
identity and her name. That would be easier than trying to prevent 
future theft and trying to clean up the damage it caused.

                              {time}  1500

  I want to tell my colleagues something is wrong with a system when a 
law enforcement official suggests that a victim change her identity to 
prevent it from being stolen. Unfortunately, this experience I have 
described has become all too common. Identity theft is a national 
epidemic, the fastest-growing white collar crime in America.
  Thankfully, the legislation before us today has serious and effective 
provisions to prevent identity theft from ever happening in the first 
place and, if it should, to make it easier to clean it up. Much of the 
bill before us today is a result of years of effort by the gentleman 
from Ohio (Mr. LaTourette) and myself. I am proud to have this 
legislation before the House today.
  The FACT Act is a bipartisan bill that contains landmark consumer 
legislation. There are a lot of people that I have to thank, all of the 
cosponsors, certainly the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Oxley), the chair; 
the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Bachus), the subcommittee chair; the 
gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Frank), ranking member; and all of 
the others that worked so hard on this. But I would also like to thank 
the staffs of both the minority and majority staff who worked 
incredibly hard on this. I also want to thank John Prible from my staff 
who worked hard on this, Travis Brower from my office and former 
staffers Josh Raymond and Tom Moore.
  Just a few important provisions to protect against identity theft 
include free annual credit reports to empower consumers, national fraud 
alerts to protect against the issuance of fraudulent credit, a red flag 
system to provide our financial institutions with the latest guidance 
on new identity theft fads. It provides a summary of rights for victims 
of identity theft. It allows consumers to block all information 
resulting from identity theft. Consumers can obtain their credit scores 
and indicators to educate consumers, protection for consumers for their 
sensitive medical information. These are just a few of the many 
consumer protections provided in this legislation.

[[Page H8122]]

  I believe that the provisions in this legislation will go a long ways 
towards helping our consumers fight identity theft. This legislation is 
long overdue, and I urge all of my colleagues to support this bill and 
help protect American consumers against the threat of identity theft. 
Please support this legislation to help our consumers and protect 
against identity theft.
  The CHAIRMAN. The Committee will rise informally.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Isakson) assumed the Chair.

                          ____________________