[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 160 (Thursday, October 5, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6336-S6337]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                             Equifax Breach

  Mr. BROWN. Madam President, I say to the Presiding Officer--and the 
Senator who is about to become the Presiding Officer--I appreciated the 
work of you two together, in tandem, today for two nominees in front of 
the Agriculture Committee. I thank you.
  (Mr. SASSE assumed the Chair.)
  Mr. President, I rise to talk for a moment about a hearing yesterday, 
which the Presiding Officer sat through, too, with the outgoing CEO of 
Equifax. We know what happened with Equifax, yet we really don't know 
entirely what happened. We know there was a breach of Equifax's 
information, and 145 million Americans--more than half of the adult 
population in our country--had their data breached. Criminals will now 
have access to the data of far too many Americans.
  I am hopeful because I and Senator Crapo, the chairman of the 
committee, and others on the committee were pretty unhappy--not to 
speak for others, certainly, but we were pretty unhappy with Equifax's 
performance yesterday because we didn't get a lot of answers to a 
number of our questions.
  When you think about what we do with medical language, with our 
personal medical information, we have laws to say that our personal 
medical information belongs to us. We, of

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course, can share it with a hospital or a doctor or whomever we want, 
but our doctor can't share it with other doctors without our 
permission. Our hospital can't share it with other hospitals without 
our permission. But our personal financial data doesn't fall into those 
categories.
  We know how this happens. Equifax is a company that many have rarely 
thought about. A lot of people have never thought much about it, and 
many have never really explored who they are. Equifax is a company in 
Atlanta. There are three data agencies like this. They get your data 
without your permission. They get it from a utility company or from a 
bank or from somebody else. They have two jobs: to collect your data 
and then to protect your data, your personal financial data.
  This company--this CEO has been paid $69 million over the last 3 
years. The CEO we met with, who has retired, has been compensated very 
generously. Who knows if he will end up getting bonuses and golden 
parachutes and all? The American public has come to unfortunately 
expect that these CEOs will abuse the public trust.
  Look at what happened at Wells Fargo, creating all kinds of accounts 
for people who didn't even want those accounts, who didn't even know 
they were having those accounts opened. And look at Equifax.
  In far too many cases, these companies don't protect our information 
the way they have promised they would. It makes all of us, the 145 
million, subject to some kind of criminal activity in all kinds of 
ways--to violate our privacy and to take advantage of us financially 
and all the identity theft and all the things that come with that.
  If you were a student at Bowling Green State University who graduated 
and you miss a student loan payment after you have graduated, you get 
your credit dinged by Equifax. If you are a homeowner in Mansfield, OH, 
or in Ravenna, OH, and you miss a monthly payment or a couple of 
monthly payments, you get your credit dinged. You are held accountable 
by Equifax, but Equifax hasn't really been held accountable much by 
anyone.
  The cynicism people in this country have toward our financial system, 
toward Wall Street--then we see Wells Fargo do what they have done; 
then we see Equifax do what they have done. It is time for Congress to 
push away these special interest groups that have far too much 
influence in this body.
  The White House has not been helpful. The White House looks like a 
retreat for Goldman Sachs executives, with all the people around the 
President who do the bidding of Wall Street and protect far too many of 
these Wall Street firms and Wells Fargo and the Equifaxes of the world.
  I am hopeful that we will sit down in a bipartisan way and begin to 
figure out what to do here. Maybe we do consider the protections we 
have for people's medical records--we ought to have the same protection 
for their financial records. It simply makes sense, and I am hopeful we 
can come to a solution.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.