00:00Sorry, reclaiming my time, thank you.
00:05My time has now expired.
00:07The gentleman from New York, Mr. Torres, is recognized for five minutes.
00:12Thank you.
00:13Director Chopra, I commend you for your decision to propose the exclusion of medical debt from
00:17credit reporting.
00:19Medical debt is often the consequence of the unforeseeable, and therefore it reveals next
00:24to nothing about the underlying creditworthiness of an individual borrower.
00:29America's conventional credit scoring methodology, to me, is fundamentally obsolete.
00:34Not only does it include factors that have no informative value, like medical debt, it
00:39often excludes factors that have informative value, like rental payments.
00:44If credit reporting were to factor in alternative data, like rent payments, most of the population,
00:49if not almost all of it, would become credit scorable.
00:53If GSEs, like the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York, Freddie May, and Fannie Mac, were
00:57to use credit scores that include rent payments and exclude medical debt, as required by law,
01:02millions of more Americans would have access to home ownership.
01:0520,000 of my constituents in the Bronx, in New York 15, would have access to home ownership.
01:10So for me, the single greatest solution to systemic racism in America is the creation
01:15of black and brown wealth through expanded access to credit and expanded access to home
01:20ownership.
01:21For the lowest income communities of color, there's nothing comparable to home ownership
01:26as a tool for broad-based wealth creation.
01:28I appreciate your mention earlier of trigger leads.
01:32You know, I have serious concerns that unregulated trigger leads fundamentally undermine consumer
01:36protection and data privacy.
01:38When consumers apply for a mortgage, a credit reporting agency will often sell their private
01:43information without their knowledge and consent.
01:47Within hours of applying for a mortgage, consumers are often blindsided by a bombardment of telemarketing
01:54calls.
01:55Some of the lenders behind these calls are often bottom feeders, engaging in unfair and
02:00deceptive business practices.
02:02And so I worry that poorly regulated trigger leads are often an open invitation to predatory
02:07lending against unsuspecting borrowers.
02:10I'm curious, would you support legislation that would regulate trigger leads?
02:14Yeah.
02:15I really have concerns about the big credit reporting conglomerates making money off of
02:21this, especially when we don't even know if these offers are really competitive or legitimate.
02:29You mentioned, Congressman Torres, that they might be bottom feeders.
02:33We don't even hear that much that these leads are leading to more competition.
02:38But I really do, I've talked to you and Congressman Rose about it.
02:42I think this is a key privacy issue we should work on.
02:45Look, I mean, I feel deregulated trigger leads leads to predatory lending under the guise
02:51of choice and competition.
02:53Maybe the theory is that it will lead to more choice and competition, but the reality is
02:56that it's led to more exploitation.
02:59As you know, June is Pride Month, and so I have a few questions in the spirit of Pride
03:02Month.
03:03The Urban Institute released a report finding a 20% homeownership gap based on sexual orientation
03:10and gender identity.
03:115% of the 20% homeownership gap cannot be explained by existing data.
03:18And so as the administrator of the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, CFPB is in a position to mandate
03:25the disclosure of more data so that researchers like the Urban Institute can ascertain the
03:30causes of the unexplained 5% homeownership gap.
03:33Is the CFPB willing to take action to expand the scope of the Home Mortgage Disclosure
03:39Act to include data relating to sexual orientation and gender identity?
03:42Yeah, we're thinking of looking more deeply in general at the homeownership gap in older
03:49homeowners, and there's certainly issues when it comes to sexual orientation and other factors.
03:57With respect to Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, there's a number of issues that we are looking
04:03at for modernization of that, and that is certainly one of them.
04:06I think it's not slated in the very near term, but when we do an assessment and we look at
04:11it, I think that's going to be something that we will also have to comply with Supreme
04:15Court precedent on this.
04:18The CFPB administers not only the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, but also the Consumer Complaints
04:23Database, which is an abundant source of data.
04:26Is the CFPB willing to expand the scope of the Consumer Complaint Database intake form
04:31to include sexual orientation and gender identity?
04:35We may have done some consumer testing on different identification factors.
04:41I think there's always the balance of how to get people through and file, but I'm happy
04:48to ask the staff about whether that's been done before.
04:51And just a final question on medical debt.
04:53Even if there's a process for disputing, don't you think we should get it right the first
04:57time?
04:58Yeah, and often when people dispute, the immediate answer is that it's correct without showing
05:04any receipts.
05:05Right.
05:06We should strive for maximum accuracy at the very beginning of the process.
05:09And ultimately, it's the law for those credit reporting conglomerates to have reasonable
05:14procedures to, quote, assure maximum possible accuracy.
05:19My time has expired.
05:20Thank you.
05:21The gentleman from Florida, Mr. Dollins, is now recognized for five minutes.
05:27Thank you, Chairman, Director Chopra.
05:29Welcome back.
05:30Question.
05:31So the CFPB referred
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