Washington, D.C. - Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) delivered the following statement, as prepared, on the House floor in support of H.R. 4445, the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021: 

"H.R. 4445, the 'Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act,' would restore access to justice for survivors of sexual assault or sexual harassment who are forced to settle their disputes against their harassers and abusers in a private system of arbitration that is often stacked against them. 

"Arbitration was originally developed as an alternative to the court system for parties of relatively equal bargaining power to enter into voluntarily.  In recent decades, however, forced arbitration clauses have become ubiquitous in our lives—largely in the form of take-it-or-leave-it contracts between very large companies and individual consumers. As a result, these clauses have rendered our court system—in which plaintiffs have far stronger protections—inaccessible to far too many. 

"Nowhere is that trend more apparent—or problematic—than in the workplace.  It is projected that, by 2024, 80 percent of private-sector workers will be forced to sign an arbitration clause when accepting employment.  And consider that, over the past five years, employers prevailed over their employees in 98 percent of these arbitration cases.  

"But these numbers cannot capture the true human toll of forced arbitration. 

"Last November, the Judiciary Committee heard powerful testimony from four survivors of sexual assault and sexual harassment about their harrowing experiences and the deep wounds they continue to carry with them to this day.  It was a hearing none of us will forget, and we appreciate these brave women coming forward and sharing their stories.

"Each of these women was subject to horrific treatment by a person with power over their lives. Then, when they sought to hold their assailants accountable in court, they were forced to relive the trauma of their harassment and assault to find that their only recourse was a secretive arbitration process that was stacked against them.

"Forced arbitration clauses, buried deep in the fine print of the paperwork required as a condition of employment, have bound workers to a system in which they are nearly guaranteed to fail, foreclosed the possibility of ever having their day in court, and in almost every case, taken away their right even to discuss their experience.

"The company gets to pick the judge and the jury, truncate the discovery process, choose the law applied, and prevent all appeals.  When the company wins, it can request that the victim pay its attorney’s fees.  And it can ensure that misconduct never sees the light of day.

"H.R. 4445 removes these barriers to justice for survivors of sexual assault or sexual harassment by giving them a real choice of whether to go to court or to arbitrate their claim.

"In doing so, this legislation ends this unjust—and frankly repulsive— system in which American companies are better off retaliating against victims of sexual assault than taking responsibility and holding perpetrators responsible for their horrific actions.

"I thank my colleagues, Representatives Bustos, Griffith, Jayapal, and Buck, for their leadership on this issue.  I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time."