Trid Improvement Act of 2018
Floor Speech
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Mr. Speaker, allow me to just thank the gentleman from the great State of Arkansas (Mr. Hill) and also Congressman Pittenger, as well as many other members of the Financial Services Committee on both sides of the aisle. It is always a pleasure to be able to work together on things. This is what our constituents expect, and that is what the Credit Access and Inclusion bill actually represents.
So, Mr. Speaker, if I told you that we could help millions of people get access to an apartment, lower the cost of a loan, lower the deposit they may have to put down on a phone or utility deposit, and we could do all these things without creating a new government program, we could do it without government mandate, and we could do it with virtually no new tax dollars, would you take that deal? Because I would. I would say: Wow, help millions of people be able to afford services that they need before, lower the cost of loans? Yeah, why wouldn't we do that? Well, the truth is that we can if we vote ``yes'' on the Credit Access and Inclusion bill.
I am proud to tell you that this particular piece of legislation, which is bipartisan, will bring about basic fairness in the credit scoring system. Credit is currency in our society. It unlocks credit for access to goods and services. Hardworking Americans need to build some economic security for themselves and their families.
There are currently about 26 million people, or 1 in 10 Americans, who do not have a credit record; and there is another 19 million Americans who do not have enough information to even score. Low-income individuals and even racial and ethnic minorities are even in worse shape. About one in four Latinos and African Americans either don't have a credit score or don't have enough information in the file to get a score.
And almost half of the residents of low-income communities do not have a score of any background.
This bill allows credit rating agencies to use on-time rent, phone, and utility payments when determining credit scores.
Now, you should know, Mr. Speaker, if people are late with these lines of information, it can, and often does, show up on their credit score now. And if people take out loan products which they pay back on time, that helps those people's credit score now.
But what about the people who pay phone bills and utility bills, and they pay their bills every month on time? They are not building anything to help them get in a better credit situation. This bill allows them to do that.
As a result, more than a third of previously unscorable Americans will now have access to prime credit and the opportunities that come with it when we pass this bill.
This bill isn't just about access to credit, though. It is also about saving hardworking Americans real money, thousands of dollars, on car loans and their mortgages.
Mr. Speaker, if you are unscorable, you can often get a loan, but the interest rate is always higher when that happens. So, if people are scorable and they get a credit score, they will be able to save money for themselves and put it into their household budget.
The money that used to be going to auto lenders and mortgage brokers is now going to go into the pockets of consumers so that they can improve the lives of their family. That sounds like a pretty good day's work to me.
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Mr. ELLISON. Mr. Speaker, I have no other speakers. I urge a ``yes'' vote on the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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