Yesterday at 5:00 p.m., the House Rules Committee, by a 9-4 partisan vote, reported a rule on H.J. Res. 111 with a recommendation that the resolution be adopted.  H.J. Res. 111 provides for Congressional disapproval under the Congressional Review Act (“CRA”) of the CFPB’s Arbitration Rule which was published on July 19, 2017 in the Federal Register.  The full House is scheduled to vote on H.J. Res. 111 today.  It is widely expected that the House will easily pass the resolution.

Under the CRA, in order to override the CFPB’s Arbitration Rule, within 60 legislative days both the House and the Senate must pass a resolution by a simple majority vote overriding the Arbitration Rule and President Trump must sign the resolution.  Since the Republicans have a slim 52-48 margin in the Senate with Vice President Pence getting a tie-breaker vote, they can only lose 2 votes and still pass the resolution, assuming as expected, that all Democratic Senators will oppose the resolution.  Reportedly, there are a few Republican Senators who are undecided on how they will vote.  While a resolution has already been introduced in the Senate, it is not expected that a vote will take place until September.