%1

The Republican-led Senate narrowly voted yesterday to repeal a banking rule that would let consumers band together to sue their banks or credit card companies to resolve financial disputes, the Associated Press reported. Vice President Mike Pence cast the final vote to break a 50-50 tie. The banking industry lobbied hard to roll back the regulation, which the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau unveiled in July. The rule would ban most types of mandatory arbitration clauses found in the fine print of agreements that consumers enter into when opening checking accounts or getting credit cards.

The Senate is moving forward on a disaster aid package this week, despite concerns from some lawmakers that it would “bail out”' the struggling federal flood insurance program and doesn’t include enough money to help states recover from devastating hurricanes, USA Today reported today. The Senate agreed yesterday to take up a $36.5 billion bill with a final vote possibly as early as today. If approved, it would be the second installment of disaster aid for states and U.S. territories hard hard hit by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria and wildfires in the West. Also contained in the legislation is the "Bankruptcy Judgeship Act of 2017," that would amend the federal judicial code to: - Convert certain temporary bankruptcy judges to permanent bankruptcy judges and authorize the appointment of additional bankruptcy judges in Delaware and Michigan; - Convert temporary bankruptcy judges to permanent bankruptcy judges in specified judicial districts in Florida, Maryland, Nevada, North Carolina, Puerto Rico, and Virginia; and - Authorize the appointment of an additional bankruptcy judge in the middle district of Florida. - Increase the quarterly fee payable to the U.S. trustee by chapter 11 (reorganization) debtors whose disbursements equal or exceed $1 million in a fiscal year unless the balance in the United States Trustee System Fund exceeds $200 million. Read more. 

Click here to read the latest text of H.R. 2266.