U.S. Senator David Perdue (R-GA) took action to protect Americans’ credit by simplifying the credit freezing process through the creation of a national credit freeze standard and limiting the exposure of consumers’ social security numbers.

Senator Perdue’s bill, the Promoting Responsible Oversight of Transactions and Examinations of Credit Technology Act of 2017, amends the Fair Credit Reporting Act to allow national security freezes for the files and credit records of protected consumers, and creates a nationwide framework for credit freezes. Additionally, the bill prohibits the largest credit reporting agencies under 603(p) from using Social Security Numbers as a method of identification by 2020.

“In today’s economy, technology and banking are intertwined,” said Senator Perdue. “It’s critical the credit bureaus and federal agencies that collect sensitive consumer data store this information properly. If not, the consequence could be severe as we’ve just seen. Millions of Americans were recently impacted by a massive cybersecurity breach at one of our nation’s largest credit bureaus. We cannot afford for something like this to happen again. These simple steps will protect Americans’ credit history and they should’ve been in place long ago.”

“There are major shortcomings in our nation’s cybersecurity laws and Congress must act,” said Congressman McHenry. “The bills Senator Perdue and I have introduced take an important first step in providing meaningful reforms to help protect American’s personal information. It protects Americans by creating a national credit freeze that actually works and prohibits the largest credit reporting agencies from continuing to rely upon the most sensitive of Americans’ personal information: our Social Security Numbers.”

Senator Perdue’s bill is companion legislation to Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-NC-10)’s PROTECT Act introduced in the House of Representatives on October 12, 2017.