On April 16, the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions held a hearing titled “Promoting Access to Credit for Everyday Americans.” The subcommittee examined the consumer credit reporting market and the role of the FCRA in balancing consumer protection with access to credit. The hearing focused on several themes, including the importance of complete and accurate credit reports, strong risk management at financial institutions to ensure Americans retain meaningful access to credit, and the rise in “questionable and duplicative” complaints in the CFPB’s consumer complaint database, among others.

The subcommittee also covered four bills noticed for the hearing: (i) H.R. 5775: the FCRA Liability Harmonization Act, which would amend the FCRA’s civil liability provisions to impose caps on statutory damages and attorney’s fees in class actions and remove the availability of punitive damages; (ii) H.R. 5402: the Credit Access and Inclusion Act of 2025, which would allow public housing authorities, utility providers, and telecommunications companies to report payment data to credit reporting agencies; (iii) H.R. 7588: the Eliminating Fraud in the CFPB’s Consumer Complaint Database Act, which would require CFPB complaint submissions to include a sworn attestation of accuracy and authorize financial institutions to close complaints deemed “duplicative, frivolous, unauthorized, or fraudulent,” while maintaining notification and recordkeeping; and (iv) H.R. 8141: the Fair Credit Reporting Reseller Accuracy Act, which would impose reasonable accuracy obligations on credit report resellers and shield them from FCRA liability when accurately transmitting information received from another consumer reporting agency.