[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 8437-8438]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       JOBS WITHOUT CREDIT CHECKS

  (Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, on Sunday the New York Times editorially 
commended bills that give people an opportunity to get jobs without 
having credit checks run on them. In this country today, credit checks 
are run on almost 65 percent of all job applicants, and sometimes they 
are used to deny people jobs.
  The fact is, even the industry lobbyist said in Oregon last year that 
credit checks have no correlation to fraud in the workplace or a 
person's ability to perform a job. Yet because of the credit industry, 
credit checks are still required.
  We have a bill in Congress, the Equal Employment for All bill, that 
would outlaw such a practice. Five States have outlawed such a practice 
and 20 States are considering it. We need to create jobs and give 
everybody a chance. Many people have bad credit because of this 
economy, because of the recession, because of health care costs that 
almost forced them into bankruptcy or have, or divorces. They

[[Page 8438]]

should not be denied the chance to have a job, a second chance.
  We should pass the Equal Employment for All bill and give all 
Americans a chance for employment.

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