Consumer Confidential: GOP discards years-long consumer effort
It took the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau five years to adopt a rule on forced arbitration by banks and credit card companies - five years of research, meetings with industry officials, public comment and crafting regulatory language.
It took a single tie-breaking vote by Vice President Mike Pence for Republican lawmakers to overturn the rule last week, denying consumers the right to band together in class-action lawsuits over possibly unfair or illegal business practices.
"The repeal of the CFPB's arbitration rule reeked of the banking industry's heavy-handed influence over Washington's politicians,"
