Title: Fair Credit Reporting for Servicemembers Act
Policy area: Finance and Financial Sector

Summary:
Fair Credit Reporting for Servicemembers Act
This bill amends the Fair Credit Reporting Act to: (1) specify that to be considered an active duty military consumer, a consumer must be assigned away from the usual duty station for a period of at least 90 days, and (2) allow a consumer to provide proof to a consumer reporting agency that an adverse credit report item occurred while on active duty.
The bill requires a consumer reporting agency to provide an active duty military consumer's relevant active duty status on adverse credit report items. A consumer reporting agency must issue alerts to an active duty military consumer regarding negative information received about that consumer.
The bill expresses the sense of Congress that users of consumer reports should take into account active duty military status when evaluating a consumer's creditworthiness.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4313 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4313

   To amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to provide protections for 
        active duty military consumers, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            November 8, 2017

 Ms. Sanchez introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Financial Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to provide protections for 
        active duty military consumers, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Fair Credit Reporting for 
Servicemembers Act''.

SEC. 2. NOTICE OF STATUS AS AN ACTIVE DUTY MILITARY CONSUMER.

    The Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 1681 et seq.) is amended--
            (1) in section 603(q)(1)(B), by inserting before the period 
        the following: ``for a period of not less than 90 days'';
            (2) in section 605, by adding at the end the following:
    ``(i) Notice of Status as an Active Duty Military Consumer.--With 
respect to an item of adverse information about a consumer, if the 
action or inaction that gave rise to the item occurred while the 
consumer was an active duty military consumer, the consumer may provide 
appropriate proof, including official orders, to a consumer reporting 
agency that the consumer was an active duty military consumer at the 
time such action or inaction occurred, and any consumer report provided 
by the consumer reporting agency that includes such item of information 
shall clearly and conspicuously disclose that the consumer was an 
active duty military consumer when the action or inaction that gave 
rise to the item occurred.'';
            (3) in section 605A--
                    (A) in subsection (c)--
                            (i) by striking ``Upon'' and inserting the 
                        following:
            ``(1) In general.--Upon'';
                            (ii) by redesignating paragraphs (1), (2), 
                        and (3) as subparagraphs (A), (B), and (C), and 
                        moving such redesignated subparagraphs 2 ems to 
                        the right; and
                            (iii) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(2) Negative information alert.--Any time a consumer 
        reporting agency receives an item of adverse information about 
        a consumer, if the consumer has provided appropriate proof that 
        the consumer is an active duty military consumer, the consumer 
        reporting agency shall promptly notify the consumer--
                    ``(A) that the agency has received such item of 
                adverse information, along with a description of the 
                item; and
                    ``(B) the method by which the consumer can dispute 
                the validity of the item.
            ``(3) Contact information for active duty military 
        consumers.--With respect to any consumer that has provided 
        appropriate proof to a consumer reporting agency that the 
        consumer is an active duty military consumer, if the consumer 
        provides the consumer reporting agency with separate contact 
        information to be used when communicating with the consumer 
        while the consumer is an active duty military consumer, the 
        consumer reporting agency shall use such contact information 
        for all communications while the consumer is an active duty 
        military consumer.
            ``(4) Sense of congress.--It is the sense of Congress that 
        any person making use of a consumer report containing an item 
        of adverse information should, if the action or inaction that 
        gave rise to the item occurred while the consumer was an active 
        duty military consumer, take such fact into account when 
        evaluating the creditworthiness of the consumer.''; and
                    (B) in subsection (e), by amending paragraph (3) to 
                read as follows:
            ``(3) subparagraphs (A) and (B) of subsection (c)(1), in 
        the case of a referral under subsection (c)(1)(C).''; and
            (4) in section 611(a)(1), by adding at the end the 
        following:
                    ``(D) Notice of dispute related to active duty 
                military consumers.--With respect to any item of 
                information described under subparagraph (A) that is 
                under dispute, if the consumer has notified the 
                consumer reporting agency, and provided appropriate 
                proof, that the consumer was an active duty military 
                consumer at the time the action or inaction that gave 
                rise to the disputed item occurred, the consumer 
                reporting agency shall include such fact in the 
                consumer's file and shall indicate that fact in each 
                consumer report that includes the disputed item.''.
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