Sponsors
The bill prioritizes reducing fraudulent and duplicative complaints and lowering business burdens through identity checks, pre-filing notice, and confidentiality, but risks deterring legitimate filers, delaying enforcement, and reducing public transparency and third‑party advocacy.
Small-business owners and covered companies: can close or decline to respond to duplicative, frivolous, or unauthorized complaints (when the filer didn't notify 60 days earlier), reducing time and administrative costs responding to complaints.
Taxpayers and consumers: requiring identity verification and attestations under penalty of perjury reduces unauthorized or fraudulent complaint filings and improves the integrity of the complaints system.
Public data users and researchers: preserves the ability to publish aggregated, de-identified complaint data so trends and patterns remain available for analysis.
Low-income individuals and people without standard IDs: identity-verification and penalty-of-perjury requirements may deter, delay, or block legitimate complaints and reduce access to redress.
Consumers generally: the requirement that covered persons be informed 60 days before filing could bar timely complaints, slow dispute resolution, and make enforcement less effective.
Taxpayers and public oversight: making narrative complaint and response content confidential limits public scrutiny of individual complaints and reduces the ability to identify and hold companies accountable for harmful practices.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires ID verification and attestations for CFPB complaints, lets firms close certain complaints, and keeps narrative complaint text confidential while allowing aggregated data publication.
Introduced February 17, 2026 by Garland H. Barr · Last progress February 17, 2026
Requires people who submit complaints to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to attest under penalty of perjury that the complaint is true, that they are the consumer or an authorized representative, and that the consumer gave the company at least 60 days’ notice before filing with the Bureau. Establishes specific types of ID that qualify as proof, lets covered companies close complaints that are duplicative, frivolous, unauthorized, or not subject to 60‑day notice (with notice to the Bureau), and makes complaint and company response narratives confidential while allowing the Bureau to publish aggregated, de‑identified data and trends.