[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 7380-7381]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         ORDER FOR ADJOURNMENT

  Mr. DODD. If there is no further business to come before the Senate, 
I ask it adjourn under the previous order, following the remarks of 
Senator Mark Udall of Colorado.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Senator from Colorado.
  Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. President, are we in morning business?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Yes, we are.


                     AMENDMENT NO. 3778 to S. 3217

  Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about a 
bipartisan amendment which Senator Lugar and I have filed based on our 
bill, the Fair Access to Credit Scores Act of 2010. This amendment is 
cosponsored by 17 of our colleagues from both sides of the aisle, which 
I have to say is a rare bipartisan piece of legislation. Our amendment 
corrects one of the fundamental inequities in our financial system by 
giving Americans free annual access to their credit score.
  The problem is that most people have been misled to believe that 
people have access to a free credit score, but that simply is not true. 
They only have access to their report. A credit report tells consumers 
what outstanding credit accounts they have open, such as student loans 
or credit cards, perhaps a car or home loan. Unfortunately, it tells 
Americans little else. On the other hand, your credit score, which our 
legislation makes available, has the critical information consumers 
need to know.
  This score is the very first point of entry into our entire financial 
system which rates each and every one of us. It is a number that banks, 
lenders, and large financial firms have easy access to, while hard-
working Americans--the engine of our economy--do not have access to it. 
A credit score affects consumers' interest rates, monthly payments on 
home loans, and can even affect a consumer's ability to buy a car, rent 
an apartment or get phone or Internet service. They can be paying 
interest rates on their home loan, car loan, or student loan which are 
two to three times higher because of their credit score. This inequity 
absolutely needs to be fixed if Americans are to take control of their 
finances. How do we expect them to do that if they do not know if their 
credit score is bad or good?
  Mr. President, I will be insisting on a vote because we must put 
consumers back in control of their finances by offering Americans 
annual access to their credit score when they access their free annual 
credit report.
  I know lobbyists have been calling everyone in the Capitol. These 
credit reporting agencies have misled Americans for years, and now 
their lobbyists are trying to mislead my colleagues in the Senate. They 
are making calls and asking Members to fight this transparency and 
coming up with all sorts of phony arguments. The truth is, this 
amendment accomplishes what the television commercials and their fine 
print have claimed for years--the offer of a free credit score.
  Our bipartisan amendment would simply require that a credit score be 
included when a consumer accesses their free annual credit report once 
per year from each agency. This would provide some context for 
consumers who access their free annual credit report and allow them to 
take responsibility for their financial situation.
  Since we filed this amendment--and I want to thank the Presiding 
Officer who has joined me on this amendment--credit reporting agencies 
and their lobbyists have been hard at work perpetuating fine-print 
arguments. They claim our amendment would confuse consumers; that the 
information belongs to the agency and not the people; and they have 
even been threatening Members it will cost them jobs in their 
particular State.
  I don't have to tell those watching and my colleagues that those 
arguments are overstated and are really no grounds for keeping 
Americans from having access to their individual credit score. 
According to credit reporting agencies and their lobbyists, providing a 
free score for transparency and therefore a sense of financial standing 
simply would distract and confuse the American consumer.
  How can they say these scores would confuse Americans, even though 
they are happy to sell them that same information? These same lobbyists 
we are discussing also claim that credit scores belong to them. In 
other words, a credit score to gauge the creditworthiness of a 
consumer, based upon their personal information, is the property of the 
credit reporting agency, not the consumer. So, in other words, they are 
making the argument it belongs to the agency, not to the individual who 
creates the credit score.
  I can't help but wonder: Would a doctor say someone's blood pressure 
reading is their information, not their patient's?
  I have to say I am disappointed to hear these credit reporting 
agencies are even making the suggestion that this amendment might 
result in job losses in their particular States. These are tough times, 
and who wouldn't be moved by the argument about jobs. But what they do 
not tell you when they make that argument is that they opposed the 2003 
law that required disclosure of consumers' credit reports and the 
industry has tripled its business since that time. It has tripled 
because consumers have gotten engaged. They care about those credit 
reports. And I would predict that if we have free credit scores, it 
will only enhance the interest of consumers to have additional 
financial literacy.
  Talking about jobs, I have some of these jobs in my State, but I 
don't consider deceptive practices and keeping Americans from their 
personal information to be a kind of jobs program. In fact, if 
anything, not knowing your credit score could be the greatest threat to 
employment for any given individual. Employers are increasingly using 
this information to decide whether to hire one person over another.
  I came to the Senate floor yesterday to speak about the frequent 
television commercials and Internet advertisements we have all seen 
which falsely claim to offer consumers free access to their credit 
score. Their ads clearly indicate to Americans that their credit

[[Page 7381]]

score is critical information. What they do not tell you--and I know 
the Presiding Officer shares some personal experiences with me on this 
account--is that they want to lure you into a costly monthly monitoring 
service that can cost hundreds of dollars a year.
  What is comical about all this is that credit reporting agency 
representatives are walking the Halls of Congress as I speak telling 
Members that our bill is somehow unfair and unfounded. They want to 
protect a Federal law that has given them a monopoly on these scores 
and continues to direct unwitting consumers their way. They are using 
the same tactics of confusion and misdirection to fight our amendment.
  We agree with the credit reporting agencies that a credit score is 
important information, and perhaps their misleading ads, if anything, 
have convinced consumers they need to know this information. However, 
luring Americans into a costly credit monitoring service is simply not 
fair.
  As I begin to close, I want to say that we have all come to the floor 
this week from both sides of the aisle explaining that what we want to 
do is to protect consumers and to do what is right for Main Street in 
this important and historic bill we are considering. We have a chance 
to right this wrong here and now. That is why the Consumer Federation 
of America, Third Way, the Consumers Union, and a wide range of 
consumer advocates support this legislation.
  While free access to a consumer's credit score is only a small part 
of the larger reforms that are needed, it addresses one of the 
fundamental inequities that pervade the financial system.
  I wish to thank a group of bipartisan Senators who have held strong 
amidst the lobbying blitz by these large multibillion-dollar entities 
to stand with consumers and cosponsors of my bipartisan amendment. That 
list includes Senators Lugar, Bond, Cochran, Brown of Massachusetts, 
Schumer, Lieberman, Levin, Hagan, Brown of Ohio, Shaheen, McCaskill, 
Lautenberg, Menendez, Tom Udall, Gillibrand, Burris, and Begich.
  I hope and expect more Members will join us in cosponsoring this 
amendment and vote for it when it comes up for a vote.

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