Consumers First Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. COHEN. Madam Chair, I yield myself 2\1/2\ minutes. The coauthor of this amendment is Mrs. Beatty from Ohio.

Madam Chair, this amendment will allow consumers to obtain free access to their credit scores. It directs the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to require that consumer reporting agencies disclose free credit scores to consumers who make that request.

Federal law currently allows consumers to obtain one credit report per year from each of the major credit bureaus that monitor consumer credit information. These free reports include all the current data on which a credit score would be based but don't include the credit score itself.

For consumers, this is kind of like trying to figure out how well their favorite baseball team is doing based on newly created analytics for the modern sports fan and not for us who know just home runs, ERA, and strikeouts. If not for the current win-loss record, would people be able to know how their team is doing.

Good credit scores mean better interest rates on mortgages, bank loans, and credit cards; smaller deposits for rent and utilities; and even lower insurance premiums.

As important as credit scores are, they are still a mystery to most Americans. While most understand the fundamentals, such as the importance of paying bills on time, there is a lot of uncertainty about how the credit score is actually determined.

Many Americans don't know, for example, that maxing out your credit card can be about as bad as making a late payment. Many people also wrongly believe their credit scores reflect their income, age, marital status, education, or even ethnicity.

A large majority of Americans are unable to define a good credit score--700--and many don't know that small changes in behavior could have a large impact on the interest rates that they will pay on loans.

With that in mind, this amendment directs the CFPB to determine if agencies should also disclose other consumer information appropriate with respect to consumer financial education.

People with poor or mediocre credit scores pay for them with higher interest rates, bigger security deposits, and higher insurance premiums.

The one number that can make or break someone's financial future more than salary is their credit score. I believe consumers have a right to obtain their credit score for free from the same source that supplies it to other entities.

I would like to acknowledge my former staffer, Michael Fulton, now an executive with the Memphis International Airport, who worked on the original bill, the Fair Access to Credit Scores Act, which I introduced 9 years ago in the 111th Congress.

I look forward to working more on this important issue with Chairwoman Waters and my partner on this amendment, Congresswoman Beatty from Ohio.

I yield such time as she may consume to the distinguished gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Beatty).

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Mr. COHEN. Madam Chairwoman, in the minute that I have, I can't read the bill to the gentleman, but what the gentleman talked about is not the bill. It might be something somewhere up in the stratosphere, but this has nothing to do with picking one company, or Venezuela, or some other communist country. This has to do with giving consumers the fair opportunity to see what their credit score is

That is America. That is fairness. That is justice.

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Mr. COHEN. Madam Chairwoman, this is a good bill. I appreciate the idea of thoughtful. It is thoughtful and it is good. And maybe it distinguishes the parties. One party is looking out for consumers to have an opportunity to get a chance to see their score and have a fair chance in the American economic system, to participate, and the other doesn't care.

Madam Chairwoman, I ask that we pass the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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