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.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. PROHIBITION ON INCLUSION OF CERTAIN IN-
FORMATION IN FILES AND CREDIT REPORTS
RELATING TO CONSUMERS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 605 of the Fair Credit
Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 1681c) is amended—
(1) in the heading for the section by inserting
‘‘and other’’ after ‘‘Obsolete’’; and
(2) by adding at the end the following new sub-
section:
‘‘(b) INFORMATION REGARDING FAILURE TO MAKE
PAYMENT DURING BANK HOLIDAY.—
‘‘(1) EXCLUSION FROM CONSUMER REPORTS.—
A consumer reporting agency shall not maintain in
the file of a consumer, or furnish a consumer report
on a consumer which contains, any information re-
garding a failure of the consumer to make any pay-
ment on an account of the consumer, if—
‘‘(A) the payment became due in a period
during which—
‘‘(i) at least 1⁄3 of the financial insti-
tutions in the State in which the consumer
resides were simultaneously insolvent for a
period of at least 5 consecutive business
days; and
‘‘(ii) there was in effect a bank holi-
day declared by the Governor of the State
based on the insolvency of a non-Federal
deposit insurance fund responsible for in-
suring deposits at credit unions, banks,
and loan and investment companies in that
State;
‘‘(B) the total amount of funds the
consumer had on deposit in financial institu-
tions in that State at the time of the failure to
make payment was greater than the total
amount of payments due on amounts of the
consumer at the time of that failure;
‘‘(C) the consumer’s lack of access to
funds in financial institutions in that State due
to the bank holiday was the primary reason for
that failure;
‘‘(D) the consumer submits a request in
writing to the consumer reporting agency that
the agency exclude the information from either
the file of the consumer or consumer reports on
the consumer;
‘‘(E) 
the 
consumer 
provides 
to 
the
consumer reporting agency appropriate vali-
dated documentation which demonstrates that
the consumer did not have access to funds in fi-
nancial institutions in the State at the time of
the failure; and
‘‘(F) the account is maintained in a cur-
rent status during the 1-year period ending on
the date of the submittal of the request.
‘‘(2) APPROPRIATE
VALIDATED
DOCUMENTA-
TION.—The Federal Trade Commission shall pre-
scribe what constitutes appropriate validated docu-
mentation for purposes of paragraph (1)(E).
‘‘(3) FINANCIAL INSTITUTION DEFINED.—For
purposes of this subsection, the term ‘financial insti-
tution’ means—
‘‘(A) any bank or savings association, as
those terms are defined in section 3 of the Fed-
eral Deposit Insurance Act; or
‘‘(B) any Federal credit union or State
credit union, as those terms are defined in sec-
tion 101 of the Federal Credit Union Act.’’.
(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—The table of sec-
tions at the beginning of the Fair Credit Reporting Act
(15 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) is amended in the item relating
to section 605 by inserting ‘‘and other’’ after ‘‘Obso-
lete’’.
Æ