October 23, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 168 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Pages S6094-S6095]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

      By Mr. REED (for himself and Mr. Van Hollen):
  S. 2685. A bill to amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to require 
that a consumer authorize the release of certain information; to the 
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
  Mr. REED. Today, I am joined by Senator Van Hollen in reintroducing 
the Consumer Credit Control Act, which gives consumers greater control 
over when and how their consumer reports are shared by consumer 
reporting agencies.
  Our current consumer reporting system is backwards. Consumer 
reporting agencies collect extensive amounts of personal information on 
consumers, often without their knowledge, in order to compile consumer 
reports. These reports are then shared with financial institutions and 
others, typically without consent.
  Following Equifax's failure in 2017 to secure troves of valuable 
personally identifiable information it collected on over 145 million 
Americans, it was evident that this system had to change. Indeed, the 
National Consumer Law Center's Chi Chi Wu stated in her October 2017 
testimony before the House Financial Services Committee that the 
Equifax breach ``means half of the US population and nearly three-
quarters of the consumers with active credit reports are now at risk of 
identity theft due to one of the worst--if not the worst--breaches of 
consumer data in American history. These Americans are at risk of 
having false new credit accounts. phony tax returns, and even spurious 
medical bills incurred in their good names.'' To make matters worse. 
the risks of identity fraud may not dissipate over time. As Ed 
Mierzwinski. U.S. PIRG's federal Consumer Program Director. explains 
``unlike credit card numbers. your Social Security Number and Date of 
Birth don't change and may even grow more valuable over time, like gold 
in a bank vault. Much worse, they are the keys to ``new account 
identity theft.' ''
  The Consumer Credit Control Act attempts to address these concerns 
and fix the current upside down system. Our legislation, at no cost to 
the consumer, seeks to give Americans greater control over when and how 
their consumer reports are released when applying for new credit, a 
loan, or insurance. It also would require consumer reporting agencies 
to verify a consumer's identity and secure the consumer's permission 
before releasing consumer reports in instances that are particularly 
vulnerable to identity theft and fraud. Additionally. our legislation 
compels every consumer reporting agency to take appropriate steps to 
prevent unauthorized access to the consumer reports and personal 
information they maintain. These changes are designed to make it 
tougher for criminals to fraudulently open new credit or insurance 
accounts in other peoples names.
  I urge our colleagues to cosponsor this commonsense legislative 
effort, and I thank Senator Van Hollen, the National Consumer Law 
Center (on behalf of its low-income clients), U.S. PIRG, Americans for 
Financial Reform, the Center for Digital Democracy, Consumer Action, 
the Consumer Federation of America, Consumer Reports, Demos, the NAACP, 
the National Association of Consumer Advocates, the National Fair 
Housing Alliance, Public Citizen, Tennessee Citizen Action, and the 
Woodstock Institute for their support.
                                 ______
                                 
      By Mr. CORNYN (for himself, Ms. McSally, Ms. Ernst, Mr. Tillis, 
        Mrs. Capito, and Mr. Scott of South Carolina):
  S. 2690. A bill to reduce mass violence, strengthen mental health 
collaboration in communities, improve school safety, and for other 
purposes; to the Committee on the Judiciary.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, 2 months ago, Texans were mourning the 
loss of 22 of our people killed in a senseless attack in El Paso, TX. 
Little did we know that we were just days away from another violent 
attack, this time in Midland and Odessa, which took seven lives.
  Visiting these communities in the wake of these tragedies is tough--
something I have, unfortunately, had experience with following the 2017 
shooting in Sutherland Springs and, again, in 2018 in Santa Fe High 
School. There are no words to bring comfort to the families and the 
friends and the community members who were shaken to their very core by 
these sudden and unwarranted acts of violence.
  But as I visited with the families and offered my condolences 
following each of these attacks, there was one common refrain, one 
common request: Please do something. Now, if I knew of a way to 
introduce and pass legislation that could stop these types of criminal 
acts from occurring, I guarantee we could pass it with 100 percent of 
the Senate and 435 Members of the House, and the President would sign 
it. But that, unfortunately, is not the human condition. Unfortunately, 
there is no quick fix, no simple answer. Instead, we are left to look 
at the factors that led to these attacks and to try to do something to 
prevent the sequence of events from playing out again in the future.
  Following the shooting in Sutherland Springs, we quickly learned some 
disturbing facts about the shooter and how he obtained his weapons. He 
had a history of violence and a criminal conviction that should have 
prevented him from ever purchasing a firearm. But this information was 
never uploaded into the background check system run by the FBI. As a 
result, the shooter was able to purchase four firearms, three of which 
were used in the attack. He shouldn't have been able to do that.
  Every time something like this happens, it is only natural to say: 
What if? What if those convictions had been uploaded? What if he wasn't 
able to purchase those firearms? Could we have stopped this terrible 
loss of life?
  My goal then, as it is now, is to do everything I can to make sure 
those questions don't have to be asked again.
  Ten days after the Sutherland Springs shooting, I introduced a piece 
of legislation called Fix NICS--Fix the National Instant Criminal 
Background Check System--to fill the gaps in our background check 
system and ensure that government agencies submit relevant evidence. We 
worked hard on it over a long period of time, and it passed with more 
than 70 Senate bipartisan cosponsors.
  What is the result of the Fix NICS bill we passed in the wake of 
Sutherland Springs? We now know that the Federal Government has 
increased its record submissions to the background check system by 400 
percent--a 400-percent increase in the background check system. That 
means if somebody is dishonorably discharged from the military, if 
somebody has been convicted of domestic violence, violated a protective 
order, or convicted of any felony, the background check system is much 
more likely to have that derogatory information in it, and the seller 
will not sell that firearm. Because of this legislation, our Federal 
background databases are becoming stronger and better by the day and 
preventing more criminals from getting their hands on deadly weapons 
that are already prohibited by existing law.
  But it is time once again to revisit the way we might reduce the loss 
of life, the way we might be able to reduce these mass violence 
episodes from occurring in our country in the future. Today, I am 
introducing the Restoring, Enhancing, Strengthening, and Promoting Our 
Nation's Safety Efforts--or the RESPONSE Act, as we call it. Just as 
Fix NICS did, this bill addresses specific problems to try to prevent 
attacks and make our communities safer.
  First, this legislation takes aim at unlicensed firearms dealers who 
are breaking the existing law. Shortly after the Midland-Odessa 
shooting, we learned that the shooter failed a background check when he 
attempted to

[[Page S6095]]

buy a gun from a licensed dealer. He then managed to circumvent the 
process by purchasing his weapon from somebody who appears to have been 
in the business of manufacturing and selling guns but who is not a 
registered firearms dealer. By not registering as a dealer, the seller 
was able to skirt the legal requirement and sell a weapon to the 
shooter without conducting the necessary background check.
  So to prevent unlicensed dealers from continuing to break the law, 
the RESPONSE Act creates a nationwide task force to investigate and 
prosecute those individuals. The task force will focus on those who are 
illegally selling firearms, as well as those attempting to buy firearms 
who provide false statements as part of the background check.
  While preventing unlicensed dealers from selling weapons without 
appropriate background checks is an important way to reduce violence, 
it is only one factor. I think we have to admit there isn't one single 
solution. It is multifactorial. There are multiple things we can and 
should do.
  The second major piece of this legislation improves the quality and 
availability of mental health care. I asked the Odessa police chief 
following the shooting in Midland-Odessa: What is it you think we might 
have been able to do? He said: Well, we need better access to mental 
health diagnoses and treatment.
  We clearly need to do more to identify and support struggling 
individuals who could pose a danger to themselves and to others. We 
know for a fact that the majority of gun deaths are suicides, self-
inflicted. While mental illness is not the prevailing cause of mass 
violence, enhanced mental health resources, I believe, are critical to 
saving lives. The RESPONSE Act includes a range of measures, such as 
expanding mental health crisis intervention teams, improving 
coordination between mental health providers and law enforcement, and 
bolstering the mental health workforce.
  Importantly, this bill expands something called assisted outpatient 
treatment programs, or AOTs. This is something we passed as part of the 
21st Century Cures Act, my Mental Health and Safe Communities Act to 
help focus on, as a priority, pilot projects of these assisted 
outpatient treatment programs. Here we seek to expand them further 
based on the proven success. AOTs, or assisted outpatient treatment, 
provide families of individuals with mental illness an opportunity to 
get treatment for their loved one in their community rather than in an 
institution. Making mental health resources more accessible will serve 
our most vulnerable friends and neighbors in countless ways and, I 
believe, make our communities safer.
  Third, the RESPONSE Act seeks to increase the safety of our students. 
I have heard from countless parents--no doubt, the Presiding Officer 
has too--that parents literally are in fear of sending their children 
to school, not knowing whether they may be victimized by one of these 
senseless attacks, especially in the aftermath of Santa Fe and Parkland 
High School. Parents are rightfully concerned about sending their kids 
to school, and they should not have to live with that.
  The RESPONSE Act includes provisions to help identify students whose 
behavior indicates a threat of violence and then provide the student 
with the appropriate services they may need not to be a danger to 
themselves or others. By promoting best practices within our schools, 
as well as internet safety policies, we can help protect both students 
and school faculty and provide parents with a little peace of mind.
  Finally, because so often these shooters advertise on social media or 
cry out for attention to law enforcement or other people ahead of time, 
this legislation includes provisions to ensure law enforcement can 
receive timely information about potential threats made online. Online 
providers and platforms have the ability to share information with law 
enforcement today during emergencies. And in the fight against child 
abuse, the RESPONSE Act would expand the scope of information they can 
share to include information about potential acts of mass violence or 
self-harm or hate crimes or acts of domestic terrorism.
  The RESPONSE Act has been endorsed already by a number of law 
enforcement and mental health organizations, including the National 
Council for Behavioral Health, National Alliance on Mental Illness, the 
National District Attorneys Association, Fraternal Order of Police, and 
a number of others.
  I am glad to say it also has received support already--even though we 
are only introducing it today--from a number of our colleagues here: 
Senators McSally, Tillis, Ernst, Capito, and Senator Tim Scott. I hope 
we can work together to build a big bipartisan list of cosponsors as 
other Senators have the opportunity to review this legislation--again, 
using the Fix NICS bill as a model of how we can build consensus and 
get something done that will save lives.
  There is no quick fix, as I said, but there are commonsense measures 
we can take to reduce mass violence and protect the American people. As 
Texans continue to grieve in the aftermath of these attacks, I am 
committed to upholding my promise that I made to their families and 
friends to do something--to do what we can to prevent more communities 
from facing this sort of heartbreak.

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