Sponsor
Garland H. Barr
Representative · R-KY
Representative · R-KY
The bill trades stronger verification and reduced burdens on businesses plus continued access to aggregate data for increased barriers to filing, reduced transparency, and potential chilling effects on vulnerable complainants and their advocates.
Taxpayers: reduces unauthorized or fraudulent complaints by requiring filers to verify identity and sign attestations under penalty of perjury, which can lower misuse of the complaint system.
Small-business owners (covered persons): lets businesses close duplicative, frivolous, or unauthorized complaints and avoid responding when not notified at least 60 days earlier, lowering administrative burden and compliance costs.
Taxpayers and researchers: preserves the ability to analyze trends by permitting publication of aggregated, de-identified complaint data, maintaining some public-use data for oversight and policy analysis.
Low-income individuals and others without standard IDs: adding identity-verification and penalty-of-perjury requirements may deter or delay legitimate complaints, reducing access to redress for vulnerable filers.
Consumers: requiring proof that the covered person was informed 60 days before filing could bar timely complaints and slow dispute resolution, delaying remedies for harmed consumers.
Taxpayers and the public: making narrative complaint and response content confidential limits public scrutiny of individual complaints and detailed examples of company conduct, reducing transparency and oversight.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires identity verification and attestations for CFPB complaints, allows firms to close certain complaints, and makes narrative complaint text confidential while allowing aggregate publication.
Official title: To amend the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 to require the attestation of certain information as part of the consumer complaint submission process, and for other purposes.
Introduced February 17, 2026 by Garland H. Barr · Last progress February 17, 2026
Requires people who submit complaints to the CFPB’s consumer complaint database to provide identity verification and attest under penalty of perjury that the complaint is truthful and authorized. Allows firms required to respond to close certain complaints that are duplicative, frivolous, unauthorized, or were not raised with the firm at least 60 days earlier; makes complaint and response narrative text confidential while still allowing publication of aggregated, de-identified data.