Jobs Without Credit Checks

Floor Speech

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, on Sunday the New York Times editorially commended bills that give people an opportunity to get jobs without having credit checks run on them. In this country today, credit checks are run on almost 65 percent of all job applicants, and sometimes they are used to deny people jobs.

The fact is, even the industry lobbyist said in Oregon last year that credit checks have no correlation to fraud in the workplace or a person's ability to perform a job. Yet because of the credit industry, credit checks are still required.

We have a bill in Congress, the Equal Employment for All bill, that would outlaw such a practice. Five States have outlawed such a practice and 20 States are considering it. We need to create jobs and give everybody a chance. Many people have bad credit because of this economy, because of the recession, because of health care costs that almost forced them into bankruptcy or have, or divorces. They should not be denied the chance to have a job, a second chance.

We should pass the Equal Employment for All bill and give all Americans a chance for employment.

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