I 
114TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5282 
To amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to improve the consumer reporting 
system, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 19, 2016 
Ms. MAXINE WATERS of California introduced the following bill; which was 
referred to the Committee on Financial Services 
A BILL 
To amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to improve the 
consumer reporting system, 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 ‘‘Comprehensive Con-
sumer Credit Reporting Reform Act of 2016’’. 
SEC. 2. TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
The table of contents for this Act is as follows: 
Sec. 1. Short title. 
Sec. 2. Table of contents. 
Sec. 3. Congressional findings. 
Sec. 4. Effective date. 
TITLE I—FIXING THE DISPUTE PROCESS 
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Sec. 101. Establishes a new right to appeal disputes completed by consumer re-
porting agencies and furnishers. 
Sec. 102. Creates reasonable dispute procedures for furnishers of information 
and meaningful disclosures to consumers about investigations; 
notices by furnishers to consumers of reporting of negative 
items to consumer reporting agencies. 
Sec. 103. Creates reasonable dispute procedures for consumer reporting agen-
cies and meaningful disclosures to consumers about reinves-
tigations. 
Sec. 104. Increases consumers’ awareness of dispute rights and tools for chal-
lenging errors. 
Sec. 105. Enhances accuracy and completeness duties for consumer reporting 
agencies and furnishers. 
Sec. 106. Requires furnishers to maintain records necessary to verify accuracy 
of disputes. 
Sec. 107. Establishes new requirements on consumer reporting agencies when 
notified of inaccurate or incomplete information from fur-
nishers. 
Sec. 108. Indication of dispute by consumers and use of disputed information. 
Sec. 109. Inclusion of public record data sources in consumer reports. 
Sec. 110. Injunctive relief for victims. 
TITLE II—RESTRICTING THE USE OF CREDIT CHECKS FOR 
EMPLOYMENT DECISIONS 
Sec. 201. Bans the use of credit information for most employment decisions. 
TITLE III—REHABILITATING THE CREDIT STANDING OF 
STRUGGLING PRIVATE EDUCATION LOAN BORROWERS 
Sec. 301. Removes adverse information for certain defaulted or delinquent pri-
vate education loan borrowers who demonstrate a history of 
loan repayment. 
Sec. 302. Private education loan definitions. 
TITLE IV—RESTORING THE IMPAIRED CREDIT OF VICTIMS OF 
PREDATORY ACTIVITIES AND UNFAIR CONSUMER REPORTING 
PRACTICES 
Sec. 401. Shortens the time period that most adverse credit information stays 
on consumer reports. 
Sec. 402. Mandates the expedited removal of fully paid or settled debt from 
consumer reports. 
Sec. 403. Imposes restrictions on the appearance of medical collections on con-
sumer reports and requires the expedited removal of fully paid 
or settled medical collections from consumer reports. 
Sec. 404. Provides credit restoration for victims of predatory mortgage lending 
and servicing. 
Sec. 405. Provides credit relief for private education loans borrowers who were 
defrauded or mislead by proprietary education institution or 
career education programs. 
Sec. 406. Establishes right for victims of financial abuse to have adverse infor-
mation associated with an abuser’s fraudulent activity removed 
from their consumer reports. 
Sec. 407. Prohibits treatment of credit restoration or rehabilitation as adverse 
information. 
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TITLE V—MONITORING THE DEVELOPMENT AND USE OF CREDIT 
SCORES 
Sec. 501. Establishes clear Federal oversight of the development of credit scor-
ing models by the Bureau. 
Sec. 502. Mandates ongoing review and reports to Congress by the Federal 
Housing Finance Agency on using additional, alternative, and 
updated credit scoring models as part of the criteria for loans 
purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. 
Sec. 503. Requires a Bureau study and report to Congress on the impact of 
using non-traditional data. 
TITLE VI—PROVIDING GREATER CONSUMER ACCESS TO AND 
UNDERSTANDING OF CONSUMER REPORTS AND CREDIT SCORES 
Sec. 601. Credit score and educational credit score definitions. 
Sec. 602. Expands explanatory information given to consumers about how 
scores are calculated. 
Sec. 603. Requires consumer reporting agencies to disclose prominently the dif-
ferences between and limitations of credit scores and edu-
cational credit scores required prior to a consumer obtaining 
such scores. 
Sec. 604. Provides consumers with free credit score disclosures with their free 
annual consumer reports upon request and creates instances 
when consumers automatically receive free consumer reports 
and credit scores. 
Sec. 605. Requires private educational lenders to provide consumers with free 
copies of any consumer reports and credit scores that they used 
for underwriting before consumers sign loan agreements. 
Sec. 606. Requires motor vehicle lenders or indirect auto lenders to provide 
consumers with free copies of any consumer reports and credit 
scores that they used for underwriting before consumers sign 
lease or loan agreements. 
Sec. 607. Requires residential mortgage lenders to provide consumers with free 
copies of any consumer reports and credit scores that they used 
for underwriting before consumers sign loan agreements. 
TITLE VII—BANNING MISLEADING AND UNFAIR CONSUMER 
REPORTING PRACTICES 
Sec. 701. Prohibits automatic renewals for consumer reporting and credit scor-
ing products and services offered under promotional terms. 
Sec. 702. Bans misleading and deceptive marketing related to the provision of 
consumer reporting and credit scoring products and services. 
Sec. 703. Ends excessive direct-to-consumer sales by giving the Bureau author-
ity to set fair and reasonable fees on consumer reporting and 
credit scoring products and services sold by consumer reporting 
agencies to consumers. 
Sec. 704. Promotes access to consumer reporting and credit scoring disclosures 
for consumers with limited English proficiency and visual and 
hearing impairments to enhance their ability to exercise their 
rights. 
Sec. 705. Establishes consumers’ right to shop for the best deal on certain 
large dollar loans without harming their credit standing. 
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Sec. 706. Ends confusion about whether entities are engaged in consumer re-
porting practices by creating a nationwide consumer reporting 
agencies registry. 
TITLE VIII—EXPANDING ACCESS TO TOOLS TO PROTECT VUL-
NERABLE CONSUMERS FROM IDENTITY THEFT, FRAUD, OR A 
RELATED CRIME, AND PROTECT VICTIMS FROM FURTHER 
HARM 
Sec. 801. Identity theft report definition. 
Sec. 802. Credit freeze definition. 
Sec. 803. Enhances fraud alert protections. 
Sec. 804. Enhances access to credit freezes, limits the cost of such freezes, and 
provides access to free credit freezes for vulnerable consumers. 
Sec. 805. Requires disclosure of consumer rights related to credit freezes. 
Sec. 806. Provides access to fraud records for victims. 
Sec. 807. Required Bureau to set procedures for reporting identity theft, fraud, 
and other related crime. 
Sec. 808. Establishes the right to free credit monitoring and identity theft pro-
tection services for certain consumers. 
Sec. 809. Ensures removal of inquiries resulting from identity theft, fraud, or 
other related crime from consumer reports. 
TITLE IX—MISCELLANEOUS 
Sec. 901. Definitions related to days. 
Sec. 902. Technical correction related to risk-based pricing notices. 
Sec. 903. FCRA findings and purpose; voids certain contracts not in the public 
interest. 
Sec. 904. General Bureau rulemaking. 
SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) GENERAL FINDINGS.— 
(A) 
Consumer 
reporting 
agencies 
(‘‘CRAs’’) are companies that collect, compile, 
and provide information about consumers in the 
form of consumer reports, commonly referred to 
as credit reports for certain permissible statu-
tory purposes. Data furnishers, such as credi-
tors, lenders, and debt collection agencies, vol-
untarily submit information to CRAs such as 
the total amount for each loan or credit limit 
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for each credit card and the consumer’s pay-
ment history on these products. These reports 
may also include information about companies 
that have asked to see a consumer’s credit re-
port, addresses, current and previous employ-
ers, and certain public records. The largest 
CRAs in this country are referred to as nation-
wide CRAs, which currently include Equifax, 
TransUnion, and Experian. 
(B) In a December 2012 paper, ‘‘Key Di-
mensions and Processes in the U.S. Credit Re-
porting System: A review for how the nation’s 
largest credit bureaus manage consumer data’’, 
the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection 
(‘‘CFPB’’ or the ‘‘Bureau’’) noted that the 
three nationwide CRAs maintain credit files on 
approximately 200 million adults and receive in-
formation from about 10,000 furnishers. On a 
monthly basis, these furnishers provide infor-
mation on over 1.3 billion consumer credit ac-
counts or other tradelines. 
(C) The 10 largest institutions furnishing 
credit information to each of the nationwide 
CRAs account for more than half of all ac-
counts reflected in consumers’ credit files. 
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(D) Consumer reports play an increasingly 
important role in the lives of American con-
sumers as most creditors are reviewing these re-
ports to make decisions about whether to ex-
tend credit and on what terms and conditions. 
As such, information contained in a person’s 
credit report not only can affect whether a per-
son is able to get a private education to pay for 
college costs, secure a mortgage to buy a home, 
or to obtain a credit card, but also can affect 
the consumer’s cost of borrowing. 
(E) Consumer reports are also increasingly 
used for noncredit decisions, including by land-
lords to determine whether to rent an apart-
ment to a prospective tenant and by employers 
to decide whether to hire potential job appli-
cants. 
(F) Pursuant to the Federal Fair Credit 
Reporting Act (‘‘FCRA’’), CRAs have a statu-
tory obligation to verify independently the accu-
racy and completeness of information included 
on the reports that they provide. 
(G) The nationwide CRAs have failed to 
establish and follow reasonable procedures, as 
required by existing law, to establish the max-
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imum level of accuracy of information contained 
on consumer reports. Given the repeated fail-
ures of CRAs to comply with accuracy require-
ments on their own, legislation is intended to 
provide them with detailed guidance improving 
the accuracy and completeness of information 
contained in consumer reports, including proce-
dures, policies, and practices that these CRAs 
should already be following to ensure full com-
pliance with their existing obligations. 
(H) The presence of inaccurate or incom-
plete information on a person’s report may re-
sult in substantial financial and emotional 
harm. Credit reporting errors can lead to the 
loss of new employment opportunities or a de-
nial of a promotion in an existing job, the in-
ability to obtain credit on favorable terms, the 
inability to secure rental housing, the mental 
distress of trying unsuccessfully to remove er-
rors from one’s credit report, among other 
types of harm. 
(I) Current industry practices impose an 
unfair burden of proof on consumers when try-
ing to fix errors on their reports. 
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(J) Consumer reports containing inac-
curate or incomplete credit information under-
mine the ability of creditors and lenders to ef-
fectively and accurately underwrite and price 
credit. 
(K) Recognizing that credit reporting af-
fects the lives of most Americans and that the 
consequences of errors on a consumer report 
can be catastrophic for a consumer the Bureau 
began accepting consumer’s complaints about 
credit reporting in October 2012. 
(L) As of August 2015, the Bureau has 
handled approximately 105,500 credit reporting 
complaints, making credit reporting the third 
most-complained-about subject matter on which 
the Bureau accepts consumer complaints. The 
most common credit reporting problems identi-
fied by consumers relate to incorrect informa-
tion contained on consumer reports (comprising 
a staggering 77 percent) and CRAs investiga-
tions (consisting of 9 percent). Other com-
plaints involve the inability to obtain a report or 
score, the improper use of reports, and credit 
monitoring or identity protection products and 
services. 
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(M) The Bureau indicated in its ‘‘Monthly 
Complaint Report Volume 2’’ released in Au-
gust 2015 that credit reporting complaints 
showed the greatest month-over-month percent-
age increase (56 percent) as compared to the 
other consumer complaints which the Bureau 
currently tracks. 
(N) The Bureau’s summer 2015 ‘‘Super-
visory Highlights’’ publication found that one or 
more of the largest CRAs failed to adequately 
oversee furnishers to ensure they were adhering 
to the CRAs vetting policies and to establish 
proper procedures to verify public record infor-
mation. 
(O) A February 2014 Bureau report titled 
‘‘Credit Reporting Complaint Snapshot’’ found 
that consumers are confused about the extent 
to which the nationwide CRAs are required to 
provide them with validation and documentation 
of a debt which appears on their credit report. 
(P) As evidence that the current system 
lacks sufficient market incentives for CRAs to 
develop more robust procedures to increase the 
accuracy and completeness of information on 
credit reports, litigation discovery documented 
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by the National Consumer Law Center, as part 
of a January 2009 report entitled ‘‘Automated 
Injustice: How a Mechanized Dispute System 
Frustrates Consumers Seeking to Fix Errors in 
Their Credit Reports’’, showed that at least two 
of the three largest CRAs use quota systems to 
force employees to process disputes hastily and 
without the opportunity for conducting mean-
ingful investigations. At least one nationwide 
CRA only allowed dispute resolution staff five 
minutes to handle a consumer’s call. Further-
more, these CRAs were found to award bonuses 
for meeting quotas and punish those who didn’t 
meet production numbers with probation. 
(Q) Unlike most other business relation-
ships, where consumers can register their satis-
faction or dissatisfaction with a particular prod-
uct or service by taking their business else-
where, consumers have no say in whether their 
information is included in the CRAs databases 
and limited legal remedies to hold the CRAs ac-
countable for inaccuracies or poor service. 
(R) Accordingly, despite the existing statu-
tory mandate for CRAs to follow reasonable 
procedures to assure the maximum possible ac-
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curacy of the information whenever they pre-
pare consumer reports, numerous studies and 
the high volume of consumer complaints sub-
mitted to the Bureau about incorrect informa-
tion on consumer reports demonstrates that 
these CRAs continue to skirt their obligations 
under the law, year after year. 
(2) INCORRECT
INFORMATION
ON
CONSUMER 
REPORTS.— 
(A) Consumers are entitled to dispute er-
rors on their consumer reports with either the 
CRA or directly with furnishers and request 
mistakes be deleted or removed. Consumers who 
believe an investigation has not correctly re-
solved their dispute have few options other than 
requesting that a statement about the dispute 
be included with their future reports. 
(B) CRAs have a statutory obligation 
under the FCRA to conduct a reasonable inves-
tigation by conducting a substantive and 
searching inquiry when a consumer disputes an 
item on their report. In doing so, CRAs must 
conduct an independent review about the accu-
racy of any disputed item and cannot merely 
rely on a furnisher’s rubber-stamp verification 
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of the integrity of the information they have 
provided to CRAs. 
(C) The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) 
in a ‘‘Report to Congress Under Section 319 of 
the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act 
of 2003’’ released in December 2012 found that 
26 percent of survey participants identified at 
least one potentially material error on their con-
sumer reports, and 13 percent experienced a 
change in their credit score once the error was 
fixed. 
(D) Bureau examiners have identified re-
peated deficiencies with the nationwide CRAs’ 
information collection. In the summer 2015 
‘‘Supervisory Highlights’’ released in June 
2015, the Bureau noted continued weaknesses 
with CRAs’ methods and processes for assuring 
maximum possible accuracy in consumer re-
ports. Bureau examiners found, with certain ex-
ceptions, no quality control policies and proce-
dures to test consumer reports for accuracy. 
(E) In its ‘‘Credit Reporting Complaint 
Snapshot’’ released in February 2014, the Bu-
reau found that consumers were uncertain 
about the depth and validity of the investiga-
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tions performed. Consumers also expressed 
frustration that even though they provided sup-
porting materials that they believed dem-
onstrated the inaccuracy of the information pro-
vided by furnishers, errors continued to remain 
on their reports. 
(F) Bureau examiners noted in the winter 
2015 ‘‘Supervisory Highlights’’ released in 
March 2015 that one or more nationwide CRAs 
failed to adequately fulfill their dispute-han-
dling obligations, including by not forwarding 
all relevant information found in letters and 
supporting documents supplied by consumers 
when they submitted disputes to furnishers, 
failing to notify consumers that they had com-
pleted their investigations, and not providing 
consumers with the results of the CRAs’ re-
views about their dispute claims. 
(G) 
Consumers’ 
increasing 
frustration 
about the difficulties of trying to fix credit re-
porting evidence through the volume of con-
sumer complaints errors submitted to the Bu-
reau, are also echoed in another FTC study on 
credit report accuracy issued in January 2015. 
In the ‘‘Report to Congress under Section 319 
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