U.S. PIRG's Model Legislation: The State Clean Credit and Identity Theft Protection Act

Executive Summary

Congress did not complete the job of protecting citizens from identity theft or credit bureau mistakes when it enacted the 2003 Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions (FACT) Act. Further, some identity theft protections of the FACT Act are enhanced and improved if states take additional action.

The State Clean Credit and Identity Theft Protection Act is a project of the state PIRGs and Consumers Union and seeks to address those areas where states must act to give consumers greater rights under federal law, It also proposes additional safeguards in some of the numerous areas not preempted by the FACT Act. It provides a model statute for states wishing to extend consumer rights and protections to their citizens. The act can be introduced as an omnibus reform or individual sections on issues including police reports, security freezes, Social Security Number protection and credit scores can be introduced separately.

 

Download the model law 

The model law (updated 7 Nov 2005) is available here or a as a pdf or as a Word document.

You can also download the important appendix in pdf "After the FACT Act: What States Can Still Do to Prevent Identity Theft." Gail Hillebrand, Senior Attorney, Consumers Union