I 
114TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1539 
To prohibit the Secretary of Labor from enforcing any requirement that 
consumer reporting agencies that serve only as a secure conduit to 
data from State unemployment compensation agencies obtain and main-
tain an individual’s informed consent agreement when verifying income 
and employment with such agencies, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 23, 2015 
Mr. ELLISON (for himself and Mr. RENACCI) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means 
A BILL 
To prohibit the Secretary of Labor from enforcing any re-
quirement that consumer reporting agencies that serve 
only as a secure conduit to data from State unemploy-
ment compensation agencies obtain and maintain an indi-
vidual’s informed consent agreement when verifying in-
come and employment with such agencies, and for other 
purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Ability to Repay 
Verification Enabling Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) Economic growth requires access to afford-
able credit which depends on consumers’ ability to 
understand the terms of any loans they make and 
the ability of lenders to have an understanding of 
the consumers’ ability and willingness to repay 
loans. 
(2) New laws enacted by Congress require lend-
ers to ascertain borrowers’ willingness and ability to 
repay prior to making a loan. 
(3) Lenders and consumers receive benefits 
such as quicker approval, lower interest rates, pro-
tection of privacy, and stronger anti-fraud protec-
tions from automatic underwriting utilizing existing 
databases. 
(4) Eleven States (Alabama, California, Flor-
ida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, New 
York, Ohio, Oregon, and Virginia) passed enabling 
legislation or rules enabling consumers who request 
that third parties using consumer report information 
for purposes of eligibility determination have effi-
cient access to this information from the State’s un-
employment insurance database. 
(5) Fair Credit Reporting Act requirements al-
ready require third parties using consumer report in-
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formation for purposes of eligibility determination to 
obtain and maintain consent agreements. 
SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON REQUIREMENT FOR ONWARD 
TRANSFER OF CONSENT AGREEMENTS. 
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Sec-
retary of Labor may not— 
(1) take any action to implement or enforce the 
requirement described in the Unemployment Insur-
ance Program Letter No. 19–12, dated May 23, 
2012, that a third-party consumer reporting agency 
that serves only as a secure conduit to data from 
State unemployment compensation agencies and that 
is not an agent of an individual obtain and maintain 
an informed consent agreement from such individual 
if the third-party consumer reporting agency seeks 
to obtain confidential unemployment compensation 
information with respect to such individual from a 
State; or 
(2) issue, implement, administer, or enforce any 
rule or other guidance that is the same as, or similar 
in effect to, the requirement described in paragraph 
(1). 
Æ 
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