[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2519 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 2519

  To amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to prohibit the inclusion of 
       medical debt on a consumer report, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             July 29, 2025

Mr. Merkley (for himself, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Fetterman, Mr. Welch, Mr. 
Warnock, and Mrs. Gillibrand) introduced the following bill; which was 
read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban 
                                Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to prohibit the inclusion of 
       medical debt on a consumer report, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Medical Debt Relief Act of 2025''.

SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS TO FAIR CREDIT REPORTING ACT.

    (a) Medical Debt Defined.--Section 603 of the Fair Credit Reporting 
Act (15 U.S.C. 1681a) is amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(bb) Medical Debt.--The term `medical debt' means a debt related 
to, in whole or in part, transactions, accounts, or balances arising 
from the receipt of medical services, products, or devices.''.
    (b) Exclusion for Medical Debt.--
            (1) In general.--Section 605(a) of the Fair Credit 
        Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 1681c(a)) is amended by striking 
        paragraph (6) and inserting the following:
    ``(6) Any adverse information related to a medical debt, including 
a medical debt that was placed for collection, charged to profit or 
loss, or subjected to any similar action.''.
            (2) Technical and conforming amendments.--Section 604(g) of 
        the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 1681b(g)) is amended--
                    (A) in paragraph (1)--
                            (i) in the matter preceding subparagraph 
                        (A), by striking ``(other than medical contact 
                        information treated in the manner required 
                        under section 605(a)(6))'';
                            (ii) in subparagraph (A), by adding ``or'' 
                        at the end;
                            (iii) in subparagraph (B)(ii), by striking 
                        ``; or'' and inserting a period; and
                            (iv) by striking subparagraph (C); and
                    (B) in paragraph (2), by striking ``(other than 
                medical information treated in the manner required 
                under section 605(a)(6))''.

SEC. 3. MODIFICATION OF REGULATIONS RELATING TO PROHIBITIONS ON USE OF 
              MEDICAL DEBT INFORMATION.

    (a) Definitions.--In this section, the terms ``credit'' and 
``creditor'' have the meanings given those terms in section 702 of the 
Equal Credit Opportunity Act (15 U.S.C. 1691a).
    (b) Requirement.--Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment 
of this Act, the Director of the Bureau of Consumer Financial 
Protection shall amend section 1022.30 of title 12, Code of Federal 
Regulations, or any successor regulation, to ensure that creditors are 
prohibited from obtaining or using information relating to the medical 
debt of a consumer in determining whether or not to extend credit to 
that consumer.
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