Congress votes to let lenders use medical debt against you
H.J.Res. 74 — Disapproving the rule submitted by the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection relating to "Prohibition on Creditors and Consumer Reporting Agencies Concerning Medical Information (Regulation V)". · Filed by Ralph Norman (R-SC) · 13 cosponsors · Introduced Mar 6, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This resolution disapproves a CFPB rule that prohibited creditors and credit reporting agencies from using medical debt information in lending and credit decisions. The disapproval means the prohibition is voided, allowing creditors and credit bureaus to resume considering medical debt when evaluating creditworthiness and setting interest rates.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is a Congressional Review Act disapproval that voids a CFPB consumer protection rule. Although framed as a disapproval, the effect is deregulation—permitting creditors and credit bureaus to resume using medical information in lending decisions.
What the text implies
- Medical debt will now be factored into credit scores and lending decisions, potentially raising borrowing costs for people with serious illnesses or medical emergencies.
- Credit reporting agencies may begin collecting and selling medical debt information as a data product, creating a new revenue stream from health crises.
- Consumers with chronic conditions or high medical expenses may face systematic credit discrimination even if they have strong payment histories on other obligations.
- The rule's disapproval may signal Congressional intent to limit CFPB authority over consumer financial practices, potentially emboldening future challenges to other CFPB protections.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Consumers lose a protection against having medical debt used against them in credit decisions. Medical debt is often involuntary and unrelated to creditworthiness; allowing its use in lending decisions may raise borrowing costs and reduce credit access for people with medical emergencies or chronic illness, disproportionately harming lower-income households.
Who stands to gain
- credit reporting agencies
- creditors and lenders
- debt collection firms
- financial services companies using medical data
Named in the bill
Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (CFPB), Congress, creditors, consumer reporting agencies, credit bureaus, 90 Fed. Reg. 3276, Regulation V
Where it stands
13 cosponsors: 13 Republicans.
- Mar 6, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Mar 6, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Financial Services · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Financial Services”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
2 lobbying clients named this bill on 5 disclosure filings across 3 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $54,960,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 253 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 41% of bills with at least one filing.
Ralph Norman, the sponsor, reported $96,520 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Chamber of Commerce of the U.S.A. — $54,660,000 on 3 filings
- Aca International — $300,000 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,330 characters) on Apr 2, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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