Rep. Ellison on H.R. 435 Passage in Financial Services Committee

Press Release

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) issued the following statement after a bill he authored, The Credit Access and Inclusion Act, passed in Financial Services Committee by a unanimous vote of 60-0:

"Right now, we have a credit system stacked against working families. Even if someone makes nine out of every ten bill payments on time, only the one missed payment is usually recorded on someone's credit score. This negative-only bias of credit reporting results in people receiving scores that do not accurately reflect their ability and willingness to pay loans.

"More than 50 million Americans have no credit information, outdated information or too few credit lines to score. Those without a credit score pay more for insurance and deposits and may be unable to rent a house or get a loan.

That's a serious problem, and this bill helps to fix it. By fixing existing regulations, this bill helps people with no credit history as well as people across the country who deserve higher credit scores than they are currently stuck with.

It is my hope that as this bill moves forward, housing providers and telecom and utility firms can easily help their customers build an accurate credit score by getting credit for paying the bills they already pay regularly."

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