I

103D CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1197

To amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to prohibit the inclusion of certain

information in files and credit reports relating to consumers.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MARCH 3, 1993

Mr. MACHTLEY introduced the following bill; which was referred to the

Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs

A BILL

To amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to prohibit the

inclusion of certain information in files and credit reports

relating to consumers.

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

3 SECTION 1. PROHIBITION ON INCLUSION OF CERTAIN IN4 FORMATION IN FILES AND CREDIT REPORTS

5 RELATING TO CONSUMERS.

6 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 605 of the Fair Credit

7 Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 1681c) is amended—

8 (1) in the heading for the section by inserting

9 ‘‘and other’’ after ‘‘Obsolete’’; and
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1 (2) by adding at the end the following new sub2 section:

3 ‘‘(b) INFORMATION REGARDING FAILURE TO MAKE

4 PAYMENT DURING BANK HOLIDAY.—

5 ‘‘(1) EXCLUSION FROM CONSUMER REPORTS.—

6 A consumer reporting agency shall not maintain in

7 the file of a consumer, or furnish a consumer report

8 on a consumer which contains, any information re9 garding a failure of the consumer to make any pay10 ment on an account of the consumer, if—

11 ‘‘(A) the payment became due in a period

12 during which—

‘‘(i) at least 1 13 ⁄3 of the financial insti14 tutions in the State in which the consumer

15 resides were simultaneously insolvent for a

16 period of at least 5 consecutive business

17 days; and

18 ‘‘(ii) there was in effect a bank holi19 day declared by the Governor of the State

20 based on the insolvency of a non-Federal

21 deposit insurance fund responsible for in22 suring deposits at credit unions, banks,

23 and loan and investment companies in that

24 State;
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1 ‘‘(B) the total amount of funds the

2 consumer had on deposit in financial institu3 tions in that State at the time of the failure to

4 make payment was greater than the total

5 amount of payments due on amounts of the

6 consumer at the time of that failure;

7 ‘‘(C) the consumer’s lack of access to

8 funds in financial institutions in that State due

9 to the bank holiday was the primary reason for

10 that failure;

11 ‘‘(D) the consumer submits a request in

12 writing to the consumer reporting agency that

13 the agency exclude the information from either

14 the file of the consumer or consumer reports on

15 the consumer;

16 ‘‘(E) the consumer provides to the

17 consumer reporting agency appropriate vali18 dated documentation which demonstrates that

19 the consumer did not have access to funds in fi20 nancial institutions in the State at the time of

21 the failure; and

22 ‘‘(F) the account is maintained in a cur23 rent status during the 1-year period ending on

24 the date of the submittal of the request.
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1 ‘‘(2) APPROPRIATE VALIDATED DOCUMENTA2 TION.—The Federal Trade Commission shall pre3 scribe what constitutes appropriate validated docu4 mentation for purposes of paragraph (1)(E).

5 ‘‘(3) FINANCIAL INSTITUTION DEFINED.—For

6 purposes of this subsection, the term ‘financial insti7 tution’ means—

8 ‘‘(A) any bank or savings association, as

9 those terms are defined in section 3 of the Fed10 eral Deposit Insurance Act; or

11 ‘‘(B) any Federal credit union or State

12 credit union, as those terms are defined in sec13 tion 101 of the Federal Credit Union Act.’’.

14 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—The table of sec15 tions at the beginning of the Fair Credit Reporting Act

16 (15 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) is amended in the item relating

17 to section 605 by inserting ‘‘and other’’ after ‘‘Obso18 lete’’.

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