The Credit Access and Inclusion Act Unanimously Passes Vote in the House Financial Services Committee

The Credit Access and Inclusion Act (H.R. 435) unanimously passed the Committee on Financial Services of the House in a 60-0 vote today . We would like to thank Representatives Keith Ellison and Robert Pittinger, who sponsored H.R. 435 and the 28 Republican and Democrat co-sponsors of this bipartisan bill.

PERC urges Chairman Hensarling to bring the bill to the House floor for a vote, hopefully in January. To encourage this, and help ensure a subsequent positive outcome in the Senate, we ask our supporters to exhort their representatives to support and co-sponsor H.R. 435.

While this legislation is not on a hot-button issue covered by the national media, should it become national law it will have an immediate and positive impact on the 45 million Credit Invisibles in America, as identified by the CFPB.  Due to insufficient or no information in their traditional credit files, these Credit Invisibles do not have credit scores by traditional means and, as a result, encounter barriers accessing lower cost credit to build assets and create wealth.

H.R. 435 will help overcome the Credit Catch-22 (that in order to qualify for credit you must already have credit) by encouraging the credit reporting of non-financial payment data, such as payments for utilities, telecoms, and rent. This will allow individuals to build their credit and repayment profiles with these everyday bills rather than the customary approach to credit profile building of acquiring debt and opening up credit cards.

PERC continues to advocate and push for passage of this important legislation through both chambers to ultimately see it become law.  To further these efforts, PERC will release an online interactive national Credit Deserts map showing the importance of alternative credit data on the national, state,  community and neighborhood levels (think Google maps with credit and financial information) following up on PERC’s pilot report displaying credit (data) deserts in Silicon Valley. We hope to release the national map in the first half of 2018. 

Source:  PERC

About PERC: The Policy and Economic Research Council (PERC) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization devoted to research, public education and outreach on public policy matters. PERC’s goal is to educate and engage policy makers, consumers, the financial/economic community and the larger public, in the firm belief that a better informed public makes better decisions. Areas of expertise include information policy, economic development, credit access and the global information economy. The Council is funded by both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations that support the Institute’s general mission and agenda.