A reckoning from #MeToo might finally be on hand with bipartisan push to end forced arbitration
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Last month, the Senate Judiciary Committee quietly and unanimously approved legislation to end forced arbitration agreements between private employers and employees alleging sexual harassment or assault. The legislation is also advancing in the HousA reckoning from #MeToo might finally be on hand with bipartisan push to end forced arbitration
Last month, the Senate Judiciary Committee quietly and unanimously approved legislation to end forced arbitration agreements between private employers and employees alleging sexual harassment or assault. The legislation is also advancing in the House, and could potentially become law before the end of the year, if it’s tacked on to another piece of legislation moving through in the end-of-the year onslaught. The bill would end mandatory arbitration in these civil suits, allowing survivors to sue in open court. It’s got some pretty surprising bipartisan heft behind it. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Dick Durbin (D-IL) introduced it in Senate, along with Reps. Cheri Bustos (D-IL), Morgan Griffith (R-VA), and Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) in the House. It’s got support from the really extreme right in the form of Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, as well as one of the strongest champions of the left, Democrat Mazie Hirono from Hawaii. That’s how it got out of committee unanimously. “We have the votes. It is widely bipartisan. The support in the Senate is extraordinarily good,” Gillibrand told Politico. “We have senior Republicans like Lindsey Graham and Chuck Grassley, plus a lot of the female leaders such as Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Shelley Moore Capito and [Marsha] Blackburn. So we have a really good coalition.” Grassley, the Iowa Republican, said in committee, “I’m voting for this bill. All victims of sexual assault or sexual harassment deserve to have their voices heard and to have the option to go to court if they choose to go to court. Mandatory arbitration shouldn’t be enforceable in these cases.” Read more
