March 3, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 42 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session

[Page H1447]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1215
        SERVICEMEMBERS SHOULD NOT BE HARASSED BY DEBT COLLECTORS

  (Mr. DAVIDSON of Ohio asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DAVIDSON of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my support 
for H.R. 5003, the Fair Debt Collection Practices for Servicemembers 
Act, sponsored by Representative Dean, which passed the House 
unanimously. I am a proud cosponsor of this bill and was glad to vote 
for it.
  As a former Army infantry officer, I have seen debt collectors harass 
servicemembers. This is made worse by collectors who contact 
servicemembers' superiors.
  The U.S. military does not owe these debts; they are the debt of the 
servicemember. So why should debt collectors be in contact with someone 
who does not owe the debt?
  From a readiness perspective, our commanding officers and 
noncommissioned officers should be focused on training our soldiers to 
fight and win our Nation's wars, not on keeping track of who owes what 
money to what debt collector.
  Just as debt collectors cannot humiliate civilians by calling their 
bosses, neither should they be allowed to use such practices on our 
fighting men and women. I am glad to see that we can all agree that 
collection companies should abide by the same rules and restrictions 
for enlisted servicemembers as they do when collecting debts from 
private citizens.
  Mr. Speaker, I encourage the Senate to take up this bill immediately.

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