Comprehensive Debt Collection Improvement Act
Latest action. Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
Comprehensive Debt Collection Improvement Act
This bill generally provides additional financial protections for consumers and places restrictions on debt collection activities.
Regarding additional consumer protections, the bill
expands certain protections currently applicable to federally backed student loans to private student loans, including by requiring the discharge of a private student loan in the event of the borrower's death or total and permanent disability;
prohibits a consumer reporting agency from adding any information related to a debt arising from a medically necessary procedure to a consumer credit report and places restrictions on the reporting of other types of medical debt; and
applies certain consumer protections regarding debt collection to debt owed to a federal agency, states, debt buyers, and businesses engaged in nonjudicial foreclosures.
It also prohibits certain loan conditions that limit a borrower's opportunity to be heard in court in the event of default.
Additionally, the bill restricts debt collectors and debt collection practices by
prohibiting a debt collector from representing to a service member that failure to cooperate with a debt collector will result in a reduction of rank or similar action,
limiting a debt collector's electronic communications with a debtor without the debtor's permission, and
requiring a debt collector to provide advance notice to a consumer of the intent to take legal action to collect a debt.
The Government Accountability Office must report on the impact of debt collection on service members and on the use of debt collectors by federal and state agencies.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Passed House" stage on May 13, 2021. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on May 17, 2021: Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the House
- Passage by the Senate
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 117th Congress (2021-22), 362 of the 15,242 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 2.4 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
MAXINE WATERS (D-CA) introduced it on April 15, 2021, and 7 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They are 7 Democrats.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on April 15, 2021, 1974 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 1942 days ago, on May 17, 2021.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 117th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2023 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HouseIn committee, no floor vote yet
- SenateAwaits House passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers