I 

111TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 5048 

To amend the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act to enhance the protection 

of credit ratings of servicemembers serving on active duty, and for 

other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 15, 2010 

Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania (for himself, Mr. BARTLETT, and Mr. SPRATT) 

introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 

Veterans’ Affairs 

A BILL 

To amend the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act to enhance 

the protection of credit ratings of servicemembers serving 

on active duty, 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 ‘‘National Heroes Credit 

5 Protection Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. PROTECTION OF CREDIT RATINGS OF 

2 SERVICEMEMBERS SERVING ON ACTIVE 

3 DUTY. 

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

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

6 by adding at the end the following new section: 

7 ‘‘SEC. 208. PROTECTION OF CREDIT RATINGS OF 

8 SERVICEMEMBERS SERVING ON ACTIVE 

9 DUTY. 

10 ‘‘(a) REQUEST FOR MILITARY SERVICE DEPLOY11 MENT ALERT.—After serving on active duty for a period 

12 of more than 180 days, a servicemember may submit a 

13 request directly to a consumer reporting agency that it 

14 include a military service deployment alert in the file of 

15 that servicemember at the consumer reporting agency. 

16 ‘‘(b) RESPONSIBILITIES OF CONSUMER REPORTING

17 AGENCIES.—Upon receiving a request from a servicemem18 ber under subsection (a), a consumer reporting agency 

19 shall perform the following: 

20 ‘‘(1) Include a military service deployment alert 

21 in the file of that servicemember and provide the 

22 military service deployment alert to each person who 

23 requests the credit score or consumer report of the 

24 servicemember until the date that is the earlier of— 


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1 ‘‘(A) the date that is seven years after the 

2 date on which the servicemember requests the 

3 military service deployment alert; or 

4 ‘‘(B) the date on which— 

5 ‘‘(i) the servicemember submits di6 rectly to the consumer reporting agency a 

7 request stating that such military service 

8 deployment alert be removed from such 

9 file; and 

10 ‘‘(ii) the agency receives proof of the 

11 identity of the servicemember making such 

12 request. 

13 ‘‘(2) Develop and maintain procedures for the 

14 referral to other such agencies of any military serv15 ice deployment alert received by the agency. 

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

17 SERVICE DEPLOYMENT ALERT.—A reseller shall include 

18 in any consumer report of the reseller on a servicemember 

19 any military service deployment alert placed in the file of 

20 that servicemember by another consumer reporting agency 

21 pursuant to this section. 

22 ‘‘(d) ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF MILITARY SERVICE DE23 PLOYMENT ALERT.—Any prospective user of a consumer 

24 credit report containing a military service deployment 


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1 alert shall acknowledge to the servicemember the receipt 

2 of such military service deployment alert. 

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

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

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

6 United States Code. 

7 ‘‘(2) The term ‘consumer reporting agency’ has 

8 the meaning given the term ‘consumer reporting 

9 agency that compiles and maintains files on con10 sumers on a nationwide basis’ under section 603(p) 

11 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 

12 1681a(p)). 

13 ‘‘(3) The term ‘military service deployment 

14 alert’ means a code generated by a consumer report15 ing agency that is delivered in conjunction with a 

16 consumer report or credit score to a user of the con17 sumer report or credit score to indicate that the con18 sumer report or credit score of the consumer may 

19 have been adversely affected during a period in 

20 which the consumer was a servicemember serving on 

21 active duty. 

22 ‘‘(4) The term ‘reseller’ has the meaning given 

23 that term under section 603(u) of the Fair Credit 

24 Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 1681a(u)).’’. 


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

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

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

‘‘Sec. 208. Protection of credit ratings of servicemembers serving on active 

duty.’’. 

4 (c) MILITARY SERVICE DEPLOYMENT ALERT NOT

5 TO AFFECT CERTAIN FUTURE TRANSACTIONS.—Section 

6 108 of such Act (50 U.S.C. App. 518) is amended in the 

7 matter preceding paragraph (1) by inserting after ‘‘liabil8 ity of that servicemember’’ the following: ‘‘, or the inclu9 sion of a military service deployment alert in a file of the 

10 servicemember at a consumer reporting agency pursuant 

11 to section 208,’’. 

12 (d) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 

13 this section shall take effect on the date that is 180 days 

14 after the date of the enactment of this Act. 

Æ 


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