IIB 

110TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 513 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

NOVEMBER 6, 2007 

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs 

AN ACT 

To amend the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act to enhance 

the protection of credit ratings of members of the reserve 

component who serve on active duty in support of a 

contingency operation, 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, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘National Heroes Credit 

3 Protection Act’’. 

4 SEC. 2. PROTECTION OF CREDIT RATINGS OF MEMBERS OF 

5 THE RESERVE COMPONENTS DEPLOYED IN 

6 SUPPORT OF CONTINGENCY OPERATIONS. 

7 (a) IN GENERAL.—Title II of the Servicemembers 

8 Civil Relief Act (50 U.S.C. App. 521 et seq.) is amended 

9 by adding at the end the following new section: 

10 ‘‘SEC. 208. PROTECTION OF CREDIT RATINGS OF MEMBERS 

11 OF RESERVE COMPONENTS DEPLOYED IN 

12 SUPPORT OF CONTINGENCY OPERATIONS. 

13 ‘‘(a) REQUEST FOR MILITARY SERVICE DEPLOY14 MENT EXPLANATION.—At any time during or after serv15 ing on active duty in support of a contingency operation, 

16 an eligible servicemember may request that a consumer 

17 reporting agency include a military service deployment ex18 planation with respect to a qualifying account in the file 

19 of that servicemember at the consumer reporting agency. 

20 ‘‘(b) RESPONSIBILITIES OF CONSUMER REPORTING

21 AGENCIES.—Upon receiving a request from an eligible 

22 servicemember under subsection (a), a consumer reporting 

23 agency shall— 

24 ‘‘(1) include a military service deployment ex25 planation with respect to a qualifying account in the 

26 file of that servicemember and provide the military 


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HR 513 RFS

1 service deployment explanation to each person who 

2 requests the credit score or consumer report of the 

3 servicemember; 

4 ‘‘(2) develop and maintain procedures for the 

5 referral to other such agencies of any military serv6 ice deployment explanation received by the agency; 

7 and 

8 ‘‘(3) notify the servicemember in writing that 

9 the inclusion of any explanation or notation in the 

10 file of the servicemember could potentially negatively 

11 affect the credit rating of the servicemember and 

12 may not mitigate a low credit score. 

13 ‘‘(c) DUTY OF RESELLER TO RECONVEY MILITARY

14 SERVICE DEPLOYMENT EXPLANATION.—A reseller shall 

15 include in any report of the reseller on a servicemember 

16 any military service deployment explanation placed in the 

17 file of that servicemember by another consumer reporting 

18 agency pursuant to this section. 

19 ‘‘(d) ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF MILITARY SERVICE DE20 PLOYMENT EXPLANATION.—Any prospective user of a 

21 consumer credit report containing a military service de22 ployment explanation shall acknowledge such military 

23 service deployment explanation. 

24 ‘‘(e) DEFINITIONS.—For the purposes of this section: 


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HR 513 RFS

1 ‘‘(1) The term ‘eligible servicemember’ means a 

2 member of a reserve component who serves on active 

3 duty outside the continental United States in sup4 port of a contingency operation under a call or order 

5 specifying a period of such service of not less than 

6 180 days (or who enters such service under a call or 

7 order specifying a period of 180 days or less and 

8 who, without a break in service, receives orders ex9 tending the period of such service to a period of not 

10 less than 180 days). 

11 ‘‘(2) The term ‘military service deployment ex12 planation’ means a code generated by a consumer 

13 reporting agency that is delivered in conjunction 

14 with a consumer report or credit score to a user of 

15 the consumer report or credit score to indicate that 

16 the consumer report or credit score of the consumer 

17 was adversely affected during a period in which the 

18 consumer was a servicemember serving on active 

19 duty outside the continental United States in sup20 port of a contingency operation. 

21 ‘‘(3) The term ‘contingency operation’ has the 

22 meaning given that term under section 101(a)(13) of 

23 title 10, United States Code. 


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1 ‘‘(4) The term ‘active duty’ has the meaning 

2 given that term under section 101(d)(1) of title 10, 

3 United States Code. 

4 ‘‘(5) The term ‘consumer reporting agency’ has 

5 the meaning given that term under section 603 of 

6 the Fair Credit Reporting Act. 

7 ‘‘(6) The term ‘reseller’ has the meaning given 

8 that term under section 603 of the Fair Credit Re9 porting Act. 

10 ‘‘(7) The term ‘qualifying account’ means an 

11 account that was opened by a servicemember before 

12 the date on which the servicemember was deployed 

13 outside the continental United States in support of 

14 a contingency operation, but only with respect to ob15 ligations incurred before such date.’’. 

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

17 in section 1(b) of such Act is amended by inserting after 

18 the item relating to section 207 the following new item: 

‘‘Sec. 208. Protection of credit ratings of certain servicemembers.’’. 

19 (c) MILITARY SERVICE DEPLOYMENT EXPLANATION

20 NOT TO AFFECT CERTAIN FUTURE TRANSACTIONS.— 

21 Section 108 of such Act (50 U.S.C. App. 518) is amended 

22 in the matter preceding paragraph (1), by inserting after 

23 ‘‘liability of that servicemember’’ the following: ‘‘, or the 

24 inclusion of a military service deployment explanation in 


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1 a file of the servicemember at a consumer reporting agen2 cy pursuant to section 208,’’. 

Passed the House of Representatives November 5, 

2007. 

Attest: LORRAINE C. MILLER, 

Clerk. 


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