Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Before I conclude, I would like to start by thanking Mr. Johnson and Mr. Nadler for bringing this critical piece of legislation to the floor. Mr. Speaker, my colleagues have repeatedly argued that this legislation is for trial lawyers. Let me tell you about Allen. Allen tried to hold American Express accountable for high swipe fees in a class action lawsuit with other small businesses. Instead, he was forced to go at it alone in arbitration, where he quickly found out that, even if he won his case, he would lose because it would cost much more to bring his claim than he could hope to ever recover. Allen lost his case after appealing all the way to the Supreme Court. Recently, some very large companies like Walgreens, CVS, and Safeway have taken American Express to trial over the very same issue. The difference here is that they are large enough to have been able to negotiate contracts without forced arbitration clauses. I have heard it said that the FAIR Act is bad for small businesses. It is quite the opposite. Corporate America claims the FAIR Act outlaws all arbitration clauses. That is simply not true. The FAIR Act does not apply to business-to-business arbitrations. The bill protects workers, consumers, and small businesses with antitrust cases. Companies like Walmart or Exxon are not protected from forced arbitration under the FAIR Act. I could share many more of these stories, but our time here is limited.…”