[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 20 (Tuesday, January 30, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S582-S583]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. REED:
  S. 2362. A bill to amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to require 
that a consumer authorize the release of certain information; to the 
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
  Mr. REED. Today, I am introducing the Control Your Personal Credit 
Information Act, which seeks to give consumers greater control over 
when and how their consumer reports are shared by consumer reporting 
agencies.
  Under existing law, the current consumer reporting system is 
backwards. Consumer reporting agencies collect vast amounts of personal 
information on consumers, often without our knowledge, in order to 
compile consumer reports. These reports are then shared with financial 
institutions and others without our consent in all cases.
  In the wake of Equifax's failure to secure troves of valuable 
personally identifiable information it collected on over 145 million 
Americans, it is clear that this system must change. Indeed, the 
National Consumer Law Center's

[[Page S583]]

Chi Chi Wu stated in her October 2017 testimony before the House 
Financial Services Committee that the Equifax breach ``means half of 
the US population and nearly three-quarters of the consumers with 
active credit reports are now at risk of identity theft due to one of 
the worst--if not the worst--breaches of consumer data in American 
history. These Americans are at risk of having false new credit 
accounts, phony tax returns, and even spurious medical bills incurred 
in their good names.'' To make matters worse, the risks of identity 
fraud may not dissipate over time because as Ed Mierzwinski, U.S. 
PIRG's Federal Consumer Program Director, points out ``unlike credit 
card numbers, your Social Security umber and Date of Birth don't change 
and may even grow more valuable over time, like gold in a bank vault. 
Much worse, they are the keys to `new account identity theft.'''
  My legislation attempts to address these concerns and fix the current 
upside down system by giving consumers greater control, at no cost to 
the consumer, over when and how their consumer reports are released 
when applying for new credit, a loan, or insurance. Under my 
legislation, consumer reporting agencies must confirm a consumer's 
identity and obtain their written authorization before releasing 
consumer reports in the instances that are especially vulnerable to 
identity theft and fraud. In addition, my bill requires every consumer 
reporting agency to take appropriate steps to prevent unauthorized 
access to the consumer reports and personal information they maintain. 
These steps are designed to make it tougher for criminals to 
fraudulently open new credit or insurance accounts in other people's 
names.
  I urge my colleagues to cosponsor this commonsense legislative 
effort, and I thank the National Consumer Law Center (on behalf of its 
low-income clients), U.S. PIRG, Americans for Financial Reform, Public 
Citizen, Consumer Federation of America, and Consumers Union for their 
support.
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