WASHINGTON, DC – After a late Saturday night legislative session, U.S. Senator Jack Reed’s (D-RI) Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act is finally headed to the president’s desk.

The bipartisan bill, co-authored by Bill Hagerty (R-TN), targets abusive “trigger leads” -- a term for when credit reporting agencies sell prospective homebuyers’ contact information to third-party mortgage brokers, lenders, and other businesses following a credit check. According to the National Association of Mortgage Brokers (NAMB) president Jim Nabors: “It is not unusual for bank customers to receive 100+ misleading texts, phone calls, and emails within the first 24 hours of applying for a mortgage and the passage of this bill will go a long way in relieving this burden to homebuyers.” Prospective homebuyers who are bombarded by these kinds of solicitations typically have no idea their information was sold without their consent.

Reed’s bill will prevent consumers’ personal information from being sold and triggering a title wave of unsolicited spam credit offers. It will give prospective homebuyers more control over their personal information and crackdown on unfair and deceptive lending practices, dramatically reducing spam calls, texts, and emails from irresponsible players in the mortgage industry.

“This is a big, bipartisan win for consumers that will halt a flood of unwanted solicitations. Homebuyers going through an already stressful process should not have their private information sold to spammers who then bombard them with unsolicited, predatory offers. Passing this bill is a smart, bipartisan solution to halt abusive trigger leads,” said Senator Reed, a senior member of the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. “This is a rare data privacy win. The Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act will put consumers back in the driver’s seat and help cut down on the spam. It will help reduce predatory practices and provide much needed relief from unwanted calls, texts, and emails.”

Specifically, the Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act would limit the ability of credit reporting bureaus to sell trigger leads to mortgage brokers and lenders when the bureaus learn that a consumer has applied for a mortgage. This legislation would amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) to include specific restrictions on the use of trigger leads in the residential mortgage lending space, with very limited exceptions for institutions that a consumer currently knows and trusts.

This bill will go into effect six months after it is signed into law. It will prohibit credit reporting bureaus from selling a trigger lead unless a mortgage broker or lender certifies to the bureau that they already have a deep financial relationship with the consumer, such as an existing mortgage loan or a deposit account. Trigger leads would also be permitted if a consumer affirmatively opts in to receiving them.

There are currently eight states -- Rhode Island, Connecticut, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin - that restrict the use of trigger leads in some fashion, and Idaho (new law effective July 2025) and Arkansas (new law effective August 2025) have also recently passed trigger lead laws that will soon take effect.

Cosponsors in the U.S. Senate include Senators: Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Tom Tillis (R-NC), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Tina Smith (D-MN), Katie Britt (R-AL), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), James E. Risch (R-ID), Angus King (I-ME), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), John Fetterman (D-PA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Peter Welch (D-VT), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Gary Peters (D-MI), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Ed Markey (D-MA), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Bernie Moreno (R-OH), Jim Banks (R-IN), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Susan Collins (R-ME), John Hoeven (R-ND), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Rick Scott (R-FL), and Dick Durbin (D-IL).

At the federal level, the Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act is supported by a broad coalition of consumer advocacy groups and financial trades, including the Mortgage Bankers Association, the Independent Community Bankers of America, the American Bankers Association, the National Association of Mortgage Brokers, the Broker Action Coalition, Community Home Lenders of America, the National Consumer Law Center (on behalf of its low-income clients), the Consumer Federation of America, Americans for Financial Reform, and others.

The House version of the bill (H.R.2808) was led by Congressman John Rose (R-TN-06) and Congressman Ritchie Torres (D-NY-15) and was unanimously approved by the full House.

President Trump is expected to sign the measure into law.