[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 94 (Tuesday, July 18, 2006)]
[House]
[Page H5285]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              FILE FREEZE

  (Mrs. MALONEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. MALONEY. Mr. Speaker, in this age of electronic transactions, we 
are all highly vulnerable to having our identity stolen and our credit 
ruined. Americans deserve every tool available to help protect their 
identities and their credit.
  And yet a data protection bill that passed out of the Committee on 
Financial Services and that is moving to this floor for a vote strips 
away the ability that consumers in 18 States have to control access to 
their credit reports at all times. It would allow consumers to freeze 
their files only after they are victims of identity theft, and that 
would absolutely do no good.
  File freeze works because it stops the granting of new credit without 
the consumers' expressed permission. I urge my colleagues to help 
protect consumers' credit and identities. I urge them to cosponsor H.R. 
5482 and join me in fighting for consumers to have the ability to 
freeze their own credit information.

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