I 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 7796 

To amend the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to restrict collections of 

consumer debt during a national disaster or emergency, and for other 

purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 27, 2020 

Mrs. BEATTY (for herself and Ms. WATERS) introduced the following bill; 

which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services 

A BILL 

To amend the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to restrict 

collections of consumer debt during a national disaster 

or emergency, and for other purposes. 

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 ‘‘Consumer Relief dur5 ing COVID–19 Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. RESTRICTIONS ON COLLECTIONS OF CONSUMER 

2 DEBT DURING A NATIONAL DISASTER OR 

3 EMERGENCY. 

4 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Fair Debt Collection Prac5 tices Act (15 U.S.C. 1692 et seq.) is amended by inserting 

6 after section 812 (15 U.S.C. 1692j) the following: 

7 ‘‘§ 812A. Restrictions on collections of consumer debt 

8 during a national disaster or emergency 

9 ‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

10 ‘‘(1) COVERED PERIOD.—The term ‘covered pe11 riod’ means the period beginning on the date of en12 actment of this section and ending 120 days after 

13 the end of the incident period for the emergency de14 clared on March 13, 2020, by the President under 

15 section 501 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief 

16 and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 4121 et 

17 seq.) relating to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 

18 (COVID–19) pandemic. 

19 ‘‘(2) CREDITOR.—The term ‘creditor’ means 

20 any person— 

21 ‘‘(A) who offers or extends credit creating 

22 a debt or to whom a debt is owed; or 

23 ‘‘(B) to whom any obligation for payment 

24 is owed. 

25 ‘‘(3) DEBT.—The term ‘debt’— 


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1 ‘‘(A) means any obligation or alleged obli2 gation that is or during the covered period be3 comes past due, other than an obligation aris4 ing out of a credit agreement entered into after 

5 the effective date of this section, that arises out 

6 of a transaction with a consumer; and 

7 ‘‘(B) does not include a mortgage loan. 

8 ‘‘(4) DEBT COLLECTOR.—The term ‘debt col9 lector’ means a creditor and any other person or en10 tity that engages in the collection of debt, including 

11 the Federal Government and a State government, ir12 respective of whether the applicable debt is allegedly 

13 owed to or assigned to such creditor, person, or enti14 ty. 

15 ‘‘(5) MORTGAGE LOAN.—The term ‘mortgage 

16 loan’ means a Federally backed mortgage loan (as 

17 defined under section 4022 of the CARES Act) and 

18 a Federally backed multifamily mortgage loan (as 

19 defined under section 4023 of the CARES Act). 

20 ‘‘(b) PROHIBITIONS.— 

21 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other 

22 provision of law, no debt collector may, during a cov23 ered period— 


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1 ‘‘(A) enforce a security interest securing a 

2 debt through repossession, limitation of use, or 

3 foreclosure; 

4 ‘‘(B) take or threaten to take any action to 

5 deprive an individual of their liberty as a result 

6 of nonpayment of or nonappearance at any 

7 hearing relating to an obligation owed by a con8 sumer; 

9 ‘‘(C) collect any debt, by way of garnish10 ment, attachment, assignment, deduction, off11 set, or other seizure, from— 

12 ‘‘(i) wages, income, benefits, bank, 

13 prepaid or other asset accounts; or 

14 ‘‘(ii) any assets of, or other amounts 

15 due to, a consumer; 

16 ‘‘(D) commence or continue an action to 

17 evict a consumer from real or personal property 

18 for nonpayment; 

19 ‘‘(E) disconnect or terminate service from 

20 a utility service, including electricity, natural 

21 gas, telecommunications or broadband, water, 

22 or sewer, for nonpayment; or 

23 ‘‘(F) threaten to take any of the foregoing 

24 actions. 


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1 ‘‘(2) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in 

2 this section may be construed to prohibit a consumer 

3 from voluntarily paying, in whole or in part, a debt. 

4 ‘‘(c) LIMITATION ON FEES AND INTEREST.—After 

5 the expiration of a covered period, a debt collector may 

6 not add to any past due debt any interest on unpaid inter7 est, higher rate of interest triggered by the nonpayment 

8 of the debt, or fee triggered prior to the expiration of the 

9 covered period by the nonpayment of the debt. 

10 ‘‘(e) VIOLATIONS.—Any person or government entity 

11 that violates this section shall be liable to the applicable 

12 consumer as provided under section 813, except that, for 

13 purposes of applying section 813— 

14 ‘‘(1) such person or government entity shall be 

15 deemed a debt collector, as such term is defined for 

16 purposes of section 813; and 

17 ‘‘(2) each dollar figure in such section shall be 

18 deemed to be 10 times the dollar figure specified. 

19 ‘‘(f) TOLLING.—Any applicable time limitations for 

20 exercising an action prohibited under subsection (b) shall 

21 be tolled during a covered period. 

22 ‘‘(g) PREDISPUTE ARBITRATION AGREEMENTS.— 

23 Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no predispute 

24 arbitration agreement or predispute joint-action waiver 

25 shall be valid or enforceable with respect to a dispute 


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1 brought under this section, including a dispute as to the 

2 applicability of this section, which shall be determined 

3 under Federal law.’’. 

4 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents 

5 for the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is amended by 

6 inserting after the item relating to section 812 the fol7 lowing: 

‘‘812A. Restrictions on collections of consumer debt during a national disaster 

or emergency.’’. 

8 SEC. 3. REPAYMENT PERIOD AND FORBEARANCE FOR CON9 SUMERS. 

10 Section 812A of the Fair Debt Collection Practices 

11 Act (15 U.S.C. 1692 et seq.), as added by section 2, is 

12 amended— 

13 (1) by inserting after subsection (c) the fol14 lowing: 

15 ‘‘(d) REPAYMENT PERIOD.—After the expiration of 

16 a covered period, a debt collector shall comply with the 

17 following: 

18 ‘‘(1) DEBT ARISING FROM CREDIT WITH A DE19 FINED PAYMENT PERIOD.—For any debt arising 

20 from credit with a defined term, the debt collector 

21 shall extend the time period to repay any past due 

22 balance of the debt by— 

23 ‘‘(A) 1 payment period for each payment 

24 that a consumer missed during the covered peVerDate Sep 11 2014 20:41 Aug 15, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7796.IH H7796

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1 riod, with the payments due in the same 

2 amounts and at the same intervals as the pre3 existing payment schedule; and 

4 ‘‘(B) 1 payment period in addition to the 

5 payment periods described under subparagraph 

6 (A). 

7 ‘‘(2) DEBT ARISING FROM AN OPEN END CRED8 IT PLAN.—For debt arising from an open end credit 

9 plan, as defined in section 103 of the Truth in 

10 Lending Act (15 U.S.C. 1602), the debt collector 

11 shall allow the consumer to repay the past-due bal12 ance in a manner that does not exceed the amounts 

13 permitted by the methods described in section 

14 171(c) of the Truth in Lending Act (15 U.S.C. 

15 1666i–1(c)) and regulations promulgated under that 

16 section. 

17 ‘‘(3) DEBT ARISING FROM OTHER CREDIT.— 

18 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—For debt not de19 scribed under paragraph (2) or (3), the debt 

20 collector shall— 

21 ‘‘(i) allow the consumer to repay the 

22 past-due balance of the debt in substan23 tially equal payments over time; and 

24 ‘‘(ii) provide the consumer with— 


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1 ‘‘(I) for past due balances of 

2 $2,000 or less, 12 months to repay, or 

3 such longer period as the debt col4 lector may allow; 

5 ‘‘(II) for past due balances be6 tween $2,001 and $5,000, 24 months 

7 to repay, or such longer period as the 

8 debt collector may allow; or 

9 ‘‘(III) for past due balances 

10 greater than $5,000, 36 months to 

11 repay, or such longer period as the 

12 debt collector may allow. 

13 ‘‘(B) ADDITIONAL PROTECTIONS.—The Di14 rector of the Bureau may issue rules to provide 

15 greater repayment protections to consumers 

16 with debts described under subparagraph (A). 

17 ‘‘(C) RELATION TO STATE LAW.—This 

18 paragraph shall not preempt any State law that 

19 provides for greater consumer protections than 

20 this paragraph.’’; and 

21 (2) by adding at the end the following: 

22 ‘‘(h) FORBEARANCE FOR AFFECTED CONSUMERS.— 

23 ‘‘(1) FORBEARANCE PROGRAM.—Each debt col24 lector that makes use of the credit facility described 


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1 in paragraph (4) shall establish a forbearance pro2 gram for debts available during the covered period. 

3 ‘‘(2) AUTOMATIC GRANT OF FORBEARANCE

4 UPON REQUEST.—Under a forbearance program re5 quired under paragraph (1), upon the request of a 

6 consumer experiencing a financial hardship due, di7 rectly or indirectly, to COVID–19, the debt collector 

8 shall grant a forbearance on payment of debt for 

9 such time as needed until the end of the covered pe10 riod, with no additional documentation required 

11 other than the borrower’s attestation to a financial 

12 hardship caused by COVID–19 and with no fees, 

13 penalties, or interest (beyond the amounts scheduled 

14 or calculated as if the borrower made all contractual 

15 payments on time and in full under the terms of the 

16 loan contract) charged to the borrower in connection 

17 with the forbearance. 

18 ‘‘(3) EXCEPTION FOR CERTAIN MORTGAGE

19 LOANS SUBJECT TO THE CARES ACT.—This sub20 section shall not apply to a mortgage loan subject to 

21 section 4022 or 4023 of the CARES Act.’’. 

22 SEC. 4. CREDIT FACILITY. 

23 Section 812A(h) of the Fair Debt Collection Prac24 tices Act (15 U.S.C. 1692 et seq.), as added by section 

25 3, is amended by adding at the end the following: 


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1 ‘‘(4) CREDIT FACILITY.—The Board of Gov2 ernors of the Federal Reserve System shall— 

3 ‘‘(A) establish a facility, using amounts 

4 made available under section 4003(b)(4) of the 

5 CARES Act (15 U.S.C. 9042(b)(4)), to make 

6 long-term, low-cost loans to debt collectors to 

7 temporarily compensate such debt collectors for 

8 documented financial losses caused by forbear9 ance of debt payments under this subsection; 

10 and 

11 ‘‘(B) defer debt collectors’ required pay12 ments on such loans until after consumers’ debt 

13 payments resume.’’. 

Æ 


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