Bill SponsorBILLSPONSOR
Bill Sponsor
Politicians
Bills
House Bill 3948
116th Congress(2019-2020)
Debt Collection Practices Harmonization Act
Introduced
Introduced
Introduced in House on Jul 24, 2019
Overview
Text
No Linkage Found
About Linkage
Multiple bills can contain the same text. This could be an identical bill in the opposite chamber or a smaller bill with a section embedded in a larger bill.
Bill Sponsor regularly scans bill texts to find sections that are contained in other bill texts. When a matching section is found, the bills containing that section can be viewed by clicking "View Bills" within the bill text section.
Bill Sponsor is currently only finding exact word-for-word section matches. In a future release, partial matches will be included.
No Linkage Found
About Linkage
Multiple bills can contain the same text. This could be an identical bill in the opposite chamber or a smaller bill with a section embedded in a larger bill.
Bill Sponsor regularly scans bill texts to find sections that are contained in other bill texts. When a matching section is found, the bills containing that section can be viewed by clicking "View Bills" within the bill text section.
Bill Sponsor is currently only finding exact word-for-word section matches. In a future release, partial matches will be included.
Jump To
H. R. 3948 (Reported-in-House)

Union Calendar No. 542

116th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 3948

[Report No. 116–658]


To amend the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to extend the provisions of that Act to cover a debt collector who is collecting debt owed to a State or local government, to index award amounts under such Act for inflation, to provide for civil injunctive relief for violations of such Act, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

July 24, 2019

Mr. Meeks introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services

December 16, 2020

Additional sponsors: Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, Ms. Pressley, Mr. Cleaver, and Mr. David Scott of Georgia

December 16, 2020

Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed

[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic]

[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on July 24, 2019]

A BILL

To amend the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to extend the provisions of that Act to cover a debt collector who is collecting debt owed to a State or local government, to index award amounts under such Act for inflation, to provide for civil injunctive relief for violations of such Act, 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 “Debt Collection Practices Harmonization Act”.

SEC. 2. Preventing deceptive and harassing practices when collecting debt owed to a State or local government.

Section 803(5) of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (15 U.S.C. 1692a(5)) is amended—

(1) by striking “money arising out” and inserting the following: “money—

“(A) arising out”;

(2) by striking “judgment.” and inserting “judgment; or”; and

(3) by adding at the end the following:

    “(B) owed to a State.”.

SEC. 3. Award of damages.

(a) Additional damages indexed for inflation.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—Section 813 of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (15 U.S.C. 1692k) is amended by adding at the end the following:

“(f) Adjustment for inflation.—

“(1) INITIAL ADJUSTMENT.—Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this subsection, the Bureau shall provide a percentage increase (rounded to the nearest multiple of $100 or $1,000, as applicable) in the amounts set forth in this section equal to the percentage by which—

“(A) the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (all items, United States city average) for the 12-month period ending on the June 30 preceding the date on which the percentage increase is provided, exceeds

“(B) the Consumer Price Index for the 12-month period preceding January 1, 1978.

“(2) ANNUAL ADJUSTMENTS.—With respect to any fiscal year beginning after the date of the increase provided under paragraph (1), the Bureau shall provide a percentage increase (rounded to the nearest multiple of $100 or $1,000, as applicable) in the amounts set forth in this section equal to the percentage by which—

“(A) the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (all items, United States city average) for the 12-month period ending on the June 30 preceding the beginning of the fiscal year for which the increase is made, exceeds

“(B) the Consumer Price Index for the 12-month period preceding the 12-month period described in subparagraph (A).”.

(2) APPLICABILITY.—The increases made under section 813(f) of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, as added by paragraph (1) of this subsection, shall apply with respect to failures to comply with a provision of such Act (15 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) occurring on or after the date of enactment of this Act.

(b) Injunctive relief.—Section 813(d) of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (15 U.S.C. 1692k(d)) is amended by adding at the end the following: “In a civil action alleging a violation of this title, the court may award appropriate relief, including injunctive relief.”.

SEC. 4. Prohibition on the referral of emergency individual assistance debt.

Chapter 3 of title 31, United States Code, is amended—

(1) in subchapter II, by adding at the end the following:

Ҥ 334. Prohibition on the referral of emergency individual assistance debt

“With respect to any assistance provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to an individual or household pursuant to the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5122 et seq.), if the Secretary of the Treasury seeks to recoup any amount of such assistance because of an overpayment, the Secretary may not contract with any debt collector or other private party to collect such amounts, unless the overpayment occurred because of fraud or deceit and the recipient of such assistance knew or should have known about such fraud or deceit.”; and

(2) in the table of contents for such chapter, by inserting after the item relating to section 333 the following:


“334. Prohibition on the referral of emergency individual assistance debt.”.

Union Calendar No. 542

116th CONGRESS
     2d Session
H. R. 3948
[Report No. 116–658]
A BILL
To amend the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to extend the provisions of that Act to cover a debt collector who is collecting debt owed to a State or local government, to index award amounts under such Act for inflation, to provide for civil injunctive relief for violations of such Act, and for other purposes.
December 16, 2020
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed