Sen. Tim Scott (R., S.C.), the Chair of the Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, won some praise from the Trump administration for his work on the Credit Score Competition Act.
Both Scott Turner, the Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Bill Pulte teamed up to announce a major change in America’s housing finance system, and Scott’s legislation was a big winner.
Turner and Pulte announced that the FHFA, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac will implement new credit score models for the first time in decades through VantageScore 4.0 and FICO 10T — which advances full implementation of Scott’s legislation.
“By embracing additional predictive credit scoring models, we are taking a meaningful step toward expanding access to homeownership, particularly for creditworthy borrowers who may have been overlooked under older systems,” Turner explained. “This exciting announcement is in service to President Trump’s promise to restore the American Dream of Homeownership.”
Pulte, who singled Scott out for praise during his announcement, added that the Trump administration is “modernizing credit scoring with more predictive models, helping millions of Americans who responsibly pay rent qualify for mortgages. That’s fair, it’s commonsense, and it’s finally delivering the benefits of competition to homebuyers nationwide.”
For years, Scott has worked to expand access to credit and responsible pathways to homeownership. In 2025, he noted that he “led legislation that was signed into law to allow for the inclusion of alternative data sources like rent, utility, and telecom bill payments into credit scoring models. Under President Trump, FHFA Director Pulte is taking long-overdue action to lower costs and expand homeownership opportunities for hardworking Americans across the country.”