WASHINGTON — A group of Democrats, led by freshman Representative Keith Ellison (D-Minn), have introduced a bill to prohibit credit card issuers from universal default practices.

The Universal Default Prohibition Act of 2007 (H.R. 2146) states, "No creditor may use any adverse information concerning any consumer, including any information in any consumer report or any change in the credit score of the consumer, as the basis for increasing any annual percentage rate of interest applicable to a credit card account of the consumer under an open end consumer credit plan, or to remove or increase any introductory annual percentage rate of interest applicable to such account, for reasons other than actions or omissions of the consumer that are directly related to such account."

It would also require issuers to disclose to consumers this fact.