II 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 575 

To amend the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to restrict the debt collection 

practices of certain debt collectors. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 8, 2017 

Mr. BOOKER (for himself and Mr. LEE) introduced the following bill; which 

was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and 

Urban Affairs 

A BILL 

To amend the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to restrict 

the debt collection practices of certain debt collectors. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Stop Debt Collection 

5 Abuse Act of 2017’’. 

6 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

7 Section 803 of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act 

8 (15 U.S.C. 1692a) is amended— 


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1 (1) in paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘facilitating 

2 collection of such debt for another’’ and inserting 

3 ‘‘collection of such debt’’; 

4 (2) by striking paragraphs (5) and (6) and in5 serting the following: 

6 ‘‘(5) The term ‘debt’ means— 

7 ‘‘(A) any obligation or alleged obligation of 

8 a consumer to pay money arising out of a 

9 transaction in which the money, property, in10 surance, or services that are the subject of the 

11 transaction are primarily for personal, family, 

12 or household purposes, whether or not such ob13 ligation has been reduced to judgment; or 

14 ‘‘(B) any obligation or alleged obligation of 

15 a consumer— 

16 ‘‘(i) to pay a loan, an overpayment, a 

17 fine, penalty, a fee, or other money to a 

18 Federal agency; and 

19 ‘‘(ii) that is not less than 180 days 

20 past due. 

21 ‘‘(6) The term ‘debt collector’— 

22 ‘‘(A) means any person who— 

23 ‘‘(i) uses any instrumentality of inter24 state commerce or the mails in any busiVerDate Sep 11 2014 18:36 Mar 14, 2017 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S575.IS S575

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1 ness the principal purpose of which is the 

2 collection of any debts; 

3 ‘‘(ii) regularly collects or attempts to 

4 collect, directly or indirectly, by its own 

5 means or by hiring another debt collector, 

6 debts owed or due or asserted to be owed 

7 or due another or that have been obtained 

8 by assignment or transfer from another; or 

9 ‘‘(iii) regularly collects debts owed or 

10 allegedly owed to a Federal agency; 

11 ‘‘(B) includes— 

12 ‘‘(i) any creditor who, in the process 

13 of collecting his own debts, uses any name 

14 other than his own which would indicate 

15 that a third person is collecting or at16 tempting to collect such debts; and 

17 ‘‘(ii) for purposes of section 808(6), 

18 includes any person who uses any instru19 mentality of interstate commerce or the 

20 mails in any business the principal purpose 

21 of which is the enforcement of security in22 terests; and 

23 ‘‘(C) does not include— 


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1 ‘‘(i) any officer or employee of a cred2 itor while, in the name of the creditor, col3 lecting debts for such creditor; 

4 ‘‘(ii) any person while acting as a debt 

5 collector for another person, both of whom 

6 are related by common ownership or affili7 ated by corporate control, if the person 

8 acting as a debt collector does so only for 

9 persons to whom it is so related or affili10 ated and if the principal business of such 

11 person is not the collection of debts; 

12 ‘‘(iii) any officer or employee of the 

13 United States or any State to the extent 

14 that collecting or attempting to collect any 

15 debt is in the performance of his official 

16 duties; 

17 ‘‘(iv) any person while serving or at18 tempting to serve legal process on any 

19 other person in connection with the judicial 

20 enforcement of any debt; 

21 ‘‘(v) any nonprofit organization which, 

22 at the request of consumers, performs 

23 bona fide consumer credit counseling and 

24 assists consumers in the liquidation of 

25 their debts by receiving payments from 


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1 such consumers and distributing such 

2 amounts to creditors; and 

3 ‘‘(vi) any person collecting or attempt4 ing to collect any debt owed or due or as5 serted to be owed or due another or that 

6 has been obtained by assignment or trans7 fer from another to the extent such activ8 ity— 

9 ‘‘(I) is incidental to a bona fide 

10 fiduciary obligation or a bona fide es11 crow arrangement; 

12 ‘‘(II) concerns a debt which was 

13 originated by such person; 

14 ‘‘(III) concerns a debt which was 

15 not in default at the time it was ob16 tained by such person; or 

17 ‘‘(IV) concerns a debt obtained 

18 by such person as a secured party in 

19 a commercial credit transaction in20 volving the creditor.’’. 

21 SEC. 3. DEBT COLLECTION PRACTICES FOR DEBT COLLEC22 TORS HIRED BY GOVERNMENT AGENCIES. 

23 The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (15 U.S.C. 

24 1692 et seq.) is amended by inserting after section 812 

25 (15 U.S.C. 1692j) the following: 


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1 ‘‘§ 812A. Debt collection practices for debt collectors 

2 hired by Federal agencies 

3 ‘‘(a) LIMITATION ON TIME TO TURN DEBT OVER TO

4 DEBT COLLECTOR.—A Federal agency that is a creditor 

5 may sell or transfer a debt described in section 803(5)(B) 

6 to a debt collector not earlier than 90 days after the date 

7 on which the obligation or alleged obligation arises. 

8 ‘‘(b) REQUIRED NOTICE.— 

9 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Before transferring or sell10 ing a debt described in section 803(5)(B) to a debt 

11 collector or contracting with a debt collector to col12 lect such a debt, a Federal agency shall notify the 

13 consumer not fewer than 3 times that the Federal 

14 agency will take such action. 

15 ‘‘(2) FREQUENCY OF NOTIFICATIONS.—The 

16 second and third notifications described in para17 graph (1) shall be made not less than 30 days after 

18 the date on which the previous notification is 

19 made.’’. 

20 SEC. 4. UNFAIR PRACTICES. 

21 Section 808 of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act 

22 (15 U.S.C. 1692f) is amended by striking paragraph (1) 

23 and inserting the following: 

24 ‘‘(1) The collection of any amount (including 

25 any interest, fee, charge, or expense incidental to the 

26 principal obligation) unless— 


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1 ‘‘(A) such amount is expressly authorized 

2 by the agreement creating the debt or permitted 

3 by law; or 

4 ‘‘(B) in the case of any amount charged by 

5 a debt collector collecting a debt for a Federal 

6 agency, such amount is— 

7 ‘‘(i) reasonable in relation to the ac8 tual costs of the collection; 

9 ‘‘(ii) authorized by a contract between 

10 the debt collector and the Federal agency; 

11 and 

12 ‘‘(iii) not greater than 10 percent of 

13 the amount collected by the debt col14 lector.’’. 

15 SEC. 5. GAO STUDY AND REPORT. 

16 (a) STUDY.—The Comptroller General of the United 

17 States shall commence a study on the use of debt collec18 tors by Federal, State, and local government agencies, in19 cluding— 

20 (1) the powers given to the debt collectors by 

21 Federal, State, and local government agencies; 

22 (2) the contracting process that allows a Fed23 eral, State, or local government agency to award 

24 debt collection to a certain company, including the 

25 selection process; 


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1 (3) any fees charged to debtors in addition to 

2 principal and interest on the outstanding debt; 

3 (4) how the fees described in paragraph (3) 

4 vary from State to State; 

5 (5) consumer protection at the State level that 

6 offer recourse to those whom debts have been wrong7 fully attributed; 

8 (6) the revenues received by debt collectors 

9 from Federal, State, and local government agencies; 

10 (7) the amount of any revenue sharing agree11 ments between debt collectors and Federal, State, 

12 and local government agencies; 

13 (8) the difference in debt collection procedures 

14 across geographic regions, including the extent to 

15 which debt collectors pursue court judgments to col16 lect debts; and 

17 (9) any legal immunity or other protections 

18 given to the debt collectors hired by State and local 

19 government agencies, including whether the debt col20 lectors are subject to the Fair Debt Collection Prac21 tices Act (15 U.S.C. 1692 et seq.). 

22 (b) REPORT.—Not later than 1 year after the date 

23 of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the 


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1 United States shall submit to Congress a report on the 

2 completed study required under subsection (a). 

Æ 


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