Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Chairman, I rise today to support the two amendments offered by my colleagues from California, Representatives Sherman, Lee, and Waters which would protect California's consumer protection laws from being preempted by the base bill being debated today. First, let me express my appreciation to my colleagues who serve on the Financial Services Committee for bringing to this Floor such a strong bipartisan bill. H.R. 2622 is important legislation which is necessary to ensure the effectiveness of our nation's credit reporting system.
It is true, this legislation will extend consumer protections currently not afforded to millions of Americans. This is not true, however, for Californians. The California Legislature, with overwhelming bipartisan and consumer support, has adopted progressive and effective financial privacy laws which afford California residents the most far reaching consumer protections in the nation.
Under California law, Californians can correct erroneous credit reporting through the filing of police reports, can request a fraud alert to be posted on their personal credit reports, have access to contact information for those who placed information on their credit report, and have the right to remove their names from credit card solicitation lists furnished by credit bureaus.
Most recently, California adopted legislation which requires financial institutions to obtain a consumer's affirmative consent before sharing information with most third parties and prevents, except under certain circumstances, the affiliate sharing of a consumer's nonpublic personal information.
Should this legislation be adopted in its current form and without these amendments, perhaps fifteen consumer protections, including those which I have just listed, will be preempted. As I said, while many Americans will enjoy additional consumer protections through the adoption of H.R. 2622, Californian's will lose many of the consumer protections which they have come to depend on.
We should not punish Californians for adopting far reaching consumer protections. In fact we should learn form California's example and extend these protections to the rest of the nation. And while this legislation will help millions of Americans it will be detrimental to all Californians.
All Members should support the amendments offered by Representatives Sherman, Lee and Waters to ensure the protection of California law and protect a state's right to enact and enforce effective consumer protection laws. However, should these amendments not be agreed to today, I urge my colleagues to ensure that this issue is corrected in the House--Senate Conference Committee on this legislation.
Finally, H.R. 2622 is necessary and important legislation which would only be made better with the adoption of these amendments.