Siege on House Committee on Financial Services!

Contact the House Committee on Financial Services - Ongoing and Relentless!

HR3149 has sat stalled in this committee for a year now. If you've been a member for awhile you know it's due to PAC money from the credit bureaus being paid into the commmittee and big dollar business lobbyists such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. In short, a government bought and paid off by corporations and their lobbyists pushing their demands ahead of the people's demands. A MSN article on FICO scores puslished last week, referenced in our sample letter below and linked at the end of the letter, is a golden opportunity to force this committee to look at just how horrible the bad credit situation really is. Demand a hearing now in order to get HR3149 out of committee and brought to a vote in the full House!

Committee Telephone Number: 202.225.4247 Start calling an keep calling!

E-mail Letter to the Commitee:

Use this e-Mail Link below to FLOOD them with e-mails (repeat as often as possible until we advise we have a hearing scheduled):

http://financialservices.house.gov/contact/contact.shtml

[Sample Letter]

FICO’s just released numbers on “bad credit” point to a national catastrophe, especially for the more than 70 million Americans who have ruined credit files. Due to employment credit checks they are barred from getting a job or changing jobs for 7 to 10 years (which is how long it takes to fix a credit file). The linked article that follows my letter states that FICO numbers now show that at least 35 percent of all Americans’ scores now fall under 650. Having a private, unregulated and never audited corporation in charge of lending and borrowing criteria may or may not be suspect, but it’s Orwellian, sick and depraved to have FICO determining whether an American can work or change jobs. Americans are now forced to sign away their right to privacy in regard to their personal credit report in exchange for the right to work and Congress does nothing to stop it? How can HR3149: The Equal Employment for All Act still be in the House Committee on Financial Services a year after introduction?

While the article speaks to the lending debacle, the numbers equate to a death sentence to people that just want to work. The big three credit bureaus try and cover their greed-based selling of credit reports to employers with the fact that they do not include the actual credit score. It’s true, the actual score is not included in the report, but in reality that makes it even worse for applicants and employees since the report provides no basis whatsoever for employment evaluation. No hiring company or their HR team has any business whatsoever with someone’s personal credit report. It’s a lending document not an employment document. What qualifications does an employer have to review a credit report?

The FICO report numbers completely debunk the entire basis that the big three credit bureaus use to market the practice of selling credit report to employers . . . “fraud and theft prevention.” Give me a break! More than 35 percent of Americans are thieves who will commit fraud as employees? There was never a correlation between a credit report and fraud, but now with the largest increase in “bad credit” in more than 20 years the assertion smacks in the face of any logic whatsoever. Even TransUnion in sworn testimony admitted there is zero correlation between a person’s credit report and theft or fraud in the workplace.

More than 30 million Americans are without a job or under-employed and at least 70 million people have ruined credit reports. How bad does it have to get before Congress acts to protect the people instead of taking bribes from the credit bureau PACs and making back room deals with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business lobbyists? Linking credit reports with employment worthiness is junk science with zero data to back it up and now it’s literally killing people, making people homeless and starving children all across America. Isn’t it time Congress listened to the cries of the people instead of the strong armed tactics and money from lobbyists?

Simply read the numbers in article below and please act to protect the American workforce during the Great Recession by passing HR3149 NOW!

Linked Article from MSN
Americans' credit scores at new lows
The credit scores of millions more Americans are sinking to new lows, according to new figures provided by FICO Inc.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38205674/from/toolbar

[End Sample Letter]