Following Senator Baldwin’s Push for Hearing, Senate Commerce Committee Calling Equifax to Testify on Data Breach

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Following U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin’s push for a hearing on the Equifax data breach, the Senate Commerce Committee will call representatives of Equifax to testify on their actions.

“Since I called for a hearing on the Equifax data breach last month, we have continued to see more and more troubling news about the actions of Equifax,” said Senator Baldwin. “Our hearing will allow Americans to get the answers they deserve about the breach, the botched response of Equifax following the breach and the actions of Equifax executives before this breach was made public.”

In addition to calling for a hearing, Senator Baldwin continued to press for answers on behalf of the millions of American consumers harmed by the Equifax breach. Senator Baldwin joined efforts to push for Equifax to end the use of forced arbitration clauses and investigate the Equifax executive stock sales. Senator Baldwin also joined a bipartisan group of 36 Senators in asking the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate the sale of nearly $2 million in Equifax securities held by high-level Equifax executives shortly after the company learned of a massive cybersecurity breach.

Senator Baldwin also helped introduce the Freedom from Equifax Exploitation (FREE) Act to give control over credit and personal information back to consumers. The legislation would prevent credit reporting agencies from profiting off of consumers' information during a freeze, enhance fraud alert protections, and provide the opportunity for consumers to receive an additional free credit report following the Equifax data breach. The legislation would also force Equifax and the other credit reporting agencies to refund any fees they charged for credit freezes in the wake of the Equifax data breach.

The Senate Commerce Committee hearing will also include representatives from Yahoo!, following the announcement that 3 billion accounts were compromised in a previously disclosed breach.