A trigger leads bill on Capitol Hill is moving forward as lawmakers backed the effort to protect the privacy of mortgage applicants nationwide.
The House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday unanimously adopted the Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act, an amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which would prohibit some lenders from contacting borrowers. Consumers and trade groups have derided the
The bill, H.R. 2808, was introduced in April by Reps. John Rose, R-Tenn., and Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., after a similar effort
Sens. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Bill Haggerty, R-Tenn., meanwhile have reintroduced a similar bill in the Senate. The timeline for the bill to reach President Trump's desk remains uncertain.
What the new trigger leads bill would do
According to lawmakers and trade groups, a consumer's data is sold by credit bureaus to data brokers, including other lenders, after a mortgage credit pull, without the customer's knowledge or approval. The move results in consumers being bombarded with text messages, phone calls and emails with credit offers, sometimes from companies misrepresenting their relationship to the borrower's original lender.
Currently, credit reporting agencies are permitted to resell consumers' information under the FCRA, as long as callers make a "firm offer of credit". The Rose/Torres bill seeks to narrow the instances in which a company can reach out to a consumer.
Under the bill, credit reporting agencies can't furnish trigger leads to third parties, unless they certify that the consumer has explicitly consented to the solicitations. Exceptions are also made for the borrower's original mortgage lender or current servicer, and for banks and credit unions where borrowers have depository accounts.
A lone dissent to the bill dissipates
The amendment also requires the General Accountability Office to perform a study on the value of trigger leads received via text message. Tuesday's amendment had over 80 co-sponsors, and Committee members lauded its privacy protections, while sharing anecdotes of themselves and constituents being inundated with calls and text messages.
"There is no other industry that gives away your private files like the credit bureaus, and to get money on it is wrong," said Ralph Norman, R-S.C.
Maxine Waters, D-Calif., backed the bill but also used her time to chide what she perceived as hypocrisy by Republican lawmakers on data privacy.
"I find it rich that any Republican would claim to support data privacy when they have done nothing about Trump letting Elon Musk and his DOGE minions steal the sensitive data from hundreds of millions of Americans," she said, referring to the
Young Kim, D-Calif., whose district includes parts of Orange County, briefly opposed the vote before withdrawing her own amendment. She said the bill cuts corners and deprioritizes the consumer, referencing the large number of consumers who
"Unfortunately, if today's bill were to be passed into law, it would be our constituents who would suffer the most as they lose a key tool to compare offers," she said.
Kim said she wants to work with Rose and Torres on the bill, and shared a letter from the Consumer Data Industry Association, which has previously
The Mortgage Bankers Association Monday evening had asked lawmakers to pass the bill. Following Tuesday morning's vote, the Community Home Lenders of America shared a statement lauding the bill's progress.
"CHLA is particularly pleased that this bill included language that the CHLA advocated to protect relationships between borrowers and the smaller lenders that originated their existing mortgage," said Scott Olson, executive director.
