Banking on the Fine Print — House Briefing, June 10, 2014

Public Citizen, Public Justice, NACA, AARP, and Citizen Works presented at a briefing, hosted by U.S. Representative Hank Johnson, on H.R. 4734, a bill labeled as the “Bureau Arbitration Fairness Act.” The bill should not to be confused with the Arbitration Fairness Act Rep. Johnson sponsors (H.R. 1844) or the Senate version, Arbitration Fairness Act (S. 878), both of which seeks to restore the public’s fundamental right to go to court by removing pre-dispute arbitration clauses in the fine print that force consumers and workers to arbitrate in a private forum instead of resolving disputes in open court.  

H.R. 4734 is an attempt to prevent the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from doing a study!  And it seeks to remove the CFPB’s power to use data driven research to do something about all the people who get ripped off or injured and then are shut out from court and never get their harms redressed. 

Here is Fair Contracts’ explanatory handout we brought to the Hill and the Flyer of the Speakers presenting: