Waters: Trump Has Stripped Millions of Their Right to Join Together and Have Their Day in Court

WASHINGTON, D.C. - In response to President Trump’s signing of a Joint Resolution to repeal the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s rule to protect consumers by restricting forced arbitration clauses, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services, issued the following statement:

“By signing the repeal of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s rule banning forced arbitration, President Trump stripped millions of Americans of their right to band together and take financial institutions to court for misconduct. Forced arbitration clauses force consumers who have been harmed by financial institutions into closed door arbitrations that they are very unlikely to win and prevent them from joining together with other harmed consumers to go to court. Studies show that consumers win only nine percent of the time in arbitration.

“By signing into law this Republican-passed legislation, the President has shown that he stands with the interests of bad actors on Wall Street, like Equifax and Wells Fargo, and not with the American consumers who have been cheated by them. With this shameful action, Donald Trump has once again betrayed hardworking Americans.”

In July, Ranking Member Waters released a Democratic staff report documenting the successes of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the importance of the Consumer Bureau's rule on forced arbitration.

Ranking Member Waters led opposition to the Joint Resolution in the House.

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