Generally, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) only preempts state laws that are inconsistent with the federal law. However, there are a number of specific provisions of the Fair Credit Reporting Act under which states may not enact laws that impose additional requirements or prohibitions. The original preemption provisions were set to expire at the end of 2003. After January 1, 2004, states would have been able to enact laws relating to the areas currently addressed only under federal law. However, the recently enacted Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (P.L. 108-159) makes permanent the current expiring preemptions and preempts certain state laws related to identity theft.
This report provides an overview of the Fair Credit Reporting Act's original preemption
provisions and discusses recently enacted legislation (P.L. 108-159) making those preemptions
permanent and creating new preemptions. This report (originally written by Angie A. Welborn,
Legislative Attorney) will not be updated.