in the country and personal misfortune that have little relationship with how well a job applicant would perform at work. (10) In October 2011, FICO noted that from 2008 to 2009 approximately 50 million people experienced a 20-point drop in their credit scores and about 21 million saw their scores decline by more than 50 points. While the Great Recession reduced many consumers’ credit scores due to foreclosures and other financial hardships, the financial crisis had a particularly harsh impact on African Americans and Latinos, as racial and ethnic minorities and communities of color were frequently targeted by predatory mortgage lenders who steered borrowers into high-cost subprime loans, even when these borrowers would have qualified for less costly prime credit. (11) A May 2006 Brookings Institution report titled Credit Scores, Reports, and Getting Ahead in America found that counties with a relatively higher proportion of racial and ethnic minorities in the United States tended to have lower credit scores compared with counties that had a lower concentration of communities of color. (12) Studies have consistently found that African American and Latino households tend, on average, to have lower credit scores than White households. The growing use of credit checks, therefore, may disproportionately screen otherwise qualified racial and ethnic minorities out of jobs, leading to discriminatory hiring practices, and further exacerbating the trend where unemployment for African American and Latino communities is elevated well above the rate of Whites. (13) A 2012 Demos survey found that 65 percent of White respondents reported having good or excellent credit scores while over half of African American households reported only having fair or bad credit. 3. Bans the use of credit information for most employment decisions (a) In general Section 604 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act ( 15 U.S.C. 1681b ) is amended— (1) in subsection (a)(3)(B), by inserting , subject to the requirements of subsection (b) after purposes