A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection relating to the withdrawal of the rule relating to "Bulletin 2022-01: Medical Debt Collection and Consumer Reporting Requirements in Connection with the No Surprises Act".

What This Bill Does

This bill is a Congressional disapproval resolution — a formal tool Congress can use to cancel a federal agency rule. Specifically, it targets a recent decision by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to withdraw a guidance document called "Bulletin 2022-01," which had set out rules about how medical debt collectors must behave under the No Surprises Act. In plain terms: the CFPB first created guidance to protect consumers from certain medical debt collection and credit reporting practices, then decided to pull that guidance back. This bill would tell the CFPB it cannot do that — essentially trying to restore the original protections by blocking the withdrawal.

Who It Affects

This bill primarily affects American patients who have medical debt, as well as the debt collectors and credit reporting agencies that handle that debt. The original 2022 guidance was intended to make sure that debt collectors followed the No Surprises Act — a law designed to protect patients from unexpected medical bills — when collecting debts and reporting them to credit bureaus. If this resolution passes, those consumer protections would remain in place, limiting how debt collectors can pursue certain medical debts and how that debt can appear on a person's credit report.

Where Things Stand

The bill has been introduced in the Senate and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, where it must be reviewed before it can move forward. If passed by both chambers of Congress and signed by the President, it would use a law called the Congressional Review Act to officially block the CFPB's withdrawal of the original bulletin.