Blumenthal & Murkowski Lead Bipartisan Push to Preserve Legal Rights & Protections of Servicemembers and Veterans
As Congress works to finalize NDAA, senators urge conference committee to retain House-passed provisions that would protect servicemembers from being stripped of their ability to seek justice through the courts
[WASHINGTON, DC] – U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) led a bipartisan group of eleven senators in urging the conference committee working on reconciling the differences between the House and Senate-passed versions of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to retain provisions passed by the House that would preserve servicemembers and veterans’ access to justice.
“Access to the court system to enforce rights granted under the law is one of the fundamental principles of our democracy,” wrote the senators in a letter to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-OK) and Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-RI) and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-WA) and Ranking Member Mac Thornberry (R-TX). “Servicemembers and veterans should not be denied their right to their day in court if their federal, statutory rights are violated. Forced arbitration deprives servicemembers of that basic right. Arbitration is a private system without any legal protections. There is no public filing of cases, public review of decisions, or requirement that arbitrators have legal training or even follow the law.”
Laws like the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) and the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) protect servicemembers from consumer scams, abuses, and fraud. These protections are undermined by mandatory arbitration clauses that deprive servicemembers from being able to seek justice in courts or joining together to seek accountability for claims of wrongdoing.
The senators urged the NDAA conference committee to include a provision that would prohibit forced arbitration for USERRA claims.
The letter was also signed by U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI), Jon Tester (D-MT), Patty Murray (D-WA), and Gary Peters (D-MI).
A number of consumer, military, and veterans groups support the House-passed provisions of the NDAA, including the American Association for Justice, Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, Military Officers Association of America, and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. Their letter of support can be viewed here.
A copy of the full letter is available here.
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