By Elena Gurevich and Russ Bleemer

Just a day after the U.S. Treasury Department issued a report criticizing a controversial Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule that prohibited class waivers requiring consumers use mandatory predispute arbitration for disputes, the U.S. Senate voted on October 24 to overturn the rule.

The House in July had voted to overturn the rule under the Congressional Review Act, which gives Congress 60 legislative-session days to reverse administrative rulings it disagrees with.

The bill will go to President Trump, who is expected to sign it.

The legislative moves will overturn five years’ worth of efforts to roll back the use of class waivers accompanied by arbitration by the CFPB, which was designated by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act to examine the utility of the ADR process in consumer disputes.

A 728-page 2015 study by the independent Washington agency said that arbitration was ineffective in vindicating consumers’ rights in financial services contracts, which are under the CFPB’s jurisdiction. The agency vowed to regulate arbitration.

After the report, Republicans, who long said the agency was too powerful, used the CFPB’s moves to increase calls to eliminate the agency in last year’s presidential campaign.

Late last night, Jeb Hensarling, R., Texas,  who as House Judiciary Committee chair led the fight against the rule, congratulated the Senate, noting in a statement on his social networks that the vote “is a victory for consumers, a defeat for the wealthy trial lawyers lobby and a rejection of the unchecked, unconstitutional and unaccountable CFPB.”

The CFPB had finalized its rule and published it July 19. It would have fully taken effect next year after a 180-day waiting period.

The rule, however, didn’t outlaw arbitration, though it increased the CFPB’s scrutiny by requiring reporting. The rule instead required that class processes, in either litigation or arbitration, be made available to consumers signing financing contracts or purchasing financial services.

Business lawyers, lobbyists and trade groups said the rule would wipe out financial services arbitration, because companies would rather face class action in courts, under familiar federal rules, than class arbitration with few outlets for appeal.

The Senate didn’t follow the House’s quick lead because it didn’t have the votes to overturn the rule, with some Republicans fearing a backlash for voting to support a banking industry-approved bill in the wake of scandals that invoked arbitration.

In fact, the Senate was split evenly, with two Republicans, Lindsay Graham, of South Carolina, and John Kennedy, of Louisiana, joining the Democrats. Vice President Mike Pence joined fellow Republicans to cast the deciding vote.

Treasury might have brought a senator or two to the side of overturning the law. On Monday, in a highly unusual move, the Treasury Department issued a 17-page report blasting the rule. See “Limiting Consumer Choice, Expanding Costly Litigation: An Analysis of the CFPB Arbitration Rule,” U.S. Dept. of the Treasury (Oct. 23)(available at http://bit.ly/2h0N7VB).

According to the Washington Post, Jaret Seiberg, an analyst with Cowen and Co.’s Washington Research Group, said that the Treasury Department report “[p]rovides some needed political cover for the few Senate Republicans who have been reluctant to vote in favor of the banks.” See Renae Merle, “Treasury Department sides with Wall Street, against federal consumer watchdog agency on arbitration rule,” Washington Post (Oct. 23)(available at http://wapo.st/2zxMABI).

It wasn’t the first Washington institution to fire back at one of its own on arbitration.  Earlier this month, the CFPB report and rule had been the subject of a heated argument between Keith A. Noreika, the acting U.S. Comptroller of the Currency, and Richard Cordray, the CFPB’s director.

Noreika slammed the CFPB’s action in an article on the Beltway website The Hill.  See “Senate should vacate the harmful consumer banking arbitration rule,” The Hill (Oct. 13)(available at http://bit.ly/2izENzT).

According to Noreika, the CFPB failed to support its case and “failed to disclose the costs to consumers that will likely result from the rule’s implementation.”

Soon after Noreika’s post, Cordray responded, stating that Noreika’s claims were “bogus” and “out of the blue.” See “The truth about the arbitration rule is it protects American consumers,” The Hill (Oct. 16)(available at http://bit.ly/2gIHbk2).

Added Cordray, “Why should Wells Fargo be able to block groups of customers from suing over fake accounts? Why should Equifax be able to force people to surrender their legal rights when the company put their personal information at risk?”

For more on yesterday’s vote, see Jessica Silver-Greenberg, “Consumer Bureau Loses Fight to Allow More Class-Action Suits,” N.Y. Times (Oct. 24)(available at http://nyti.ms/2yL9eHn).

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Gurevich is a CPR Institute 2017 Fall Intern. Bleemer edits Alternatives for the CPR Institute.