Political Quotes

“My amendment is simple. It would require the GAO to carry out a study on the compliance of consumer reporting agencies with the underlying legislation proposed by my colleague from Massachusetts. It would also study what effect the compliance of reporting agencies would have on consumers. This is important because if this bill were somehow able to become law, the results would be disastrous not only for reporting agencies but also for the average consumer. The purpose of a credit score is to show an individual's creditworthiness. This bill would significantly water down the integrity of these credit scores. If you are removing predictive data, if you are drastically shortening the amount of time adverse yet accurate information remains on a report, and if you remove medical debt from a report, then what exactly is the purpose of a credit score? What will a credit score be good for if this bill were to become law? The bottom line is this bill would significantly weaken the process for determining creditworthiness and would enable individuals to obtain loans that they do not have the means to pay back. It would also give the CFPB, an unaccountable government agency, control over private credit scoring models. It is imperative that we know exactly how compliance with this bill would affect reporting agencies and, as a result, consumers. Mr. Chair, I urge all of my colleagues to support this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.”