Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2017

Floor Speech

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Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the Ellison amendment, which strikes section 506 from the bill, a deeply flawed provision that would restrict the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's ability to fulfill its statutory mandate to regulate pre- dispute mandatory arbitration clauses in contracts for financial products and services.

Over the past several decades, forced arbitration clauses have proliferated in countless consumer, employment, and small-business contracts depriving countless Americans of their right to a jury trial in a court of law while insulating corporations from public accountability. That is why when Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010, we explicitly empowered the CFPB to study pre-dispute forced arbitration, and then based on the study's results, ban or limit the practice through regulation.

In March 2015, the CFPB issued a seminal report finding that forced arbitration agreements restrict consumers' access to relief in disputes involving financial services and products. As overwhelmingly and methodically documented in this report, the CFPB confirmed what we already knew, that forced arbitration clauses blocked consumers from suing wrongdoers in court individually or in class action lawsuits.

Now it is time for the CFPB to ensure that consumers have their day in court by adopting a strong rule banning forced arbitration clauses in contracts for financial services and products. This amendment ensures that the CFPB can do just that.

Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to support the Ellison amendment.

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