Ranking Member Cole Remarks on H.R. 963

Hearing

As delivered during today's hearing:

Today's hearing is to take testimony on H.R. 963, the FAIR Act. This bill would retroactively rewrite contracts binding every business and person in the United States to eliminate agreed arbitration provisions. There is one exception, which is, unsurprisingly, for arbitration agreements included in collective bargaining agreements.

Arbitration provisions are very common in contracts governing our day-to-day lives, in situations ranging from employment contracts to sales contracts to real estate contracts. They are common for a very good reason: in many -- if not most -- cases, arbitration is easier and cheaper than taking a case through the courts. Yet if the Majority has its way, almost all of these provisions would be made illegal and unenforceable.

What would the effect of that be? Well, cases that would previously have been resolved through arbitration would now be forced into litigation. The only real winners in that scenario are trial lawyers, who would obviously stand to benefit from forcing people out of the simple, cheap and effective arbitration system and into the complex, expensive and confusing litigation system. But it would be a great loss for business, consumers, workers and employers.

At the end of the day, this is a deeply misguided and even misnamed bill. There's nothing fair about forcing people out of an effective and cheap dispute resolution system and into the courts for the benefit of trial lawyers. This bill would be better called the "Trial Lawyers Protection Act" because it is a bill that is written by trial lawyers, for the benefit of trial lawyers, at the expense of the American people.

Although it is disappointing that we are considering such a misguided piece of legislation, I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today.

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