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Protecting Older Americans Act of 2025
To amend title 9 of the United States Code with respect to arbitration of disputes involving age discrimination.
Summary
This bill amends the federal arbitration law to prohibit pre-dispute arbitration agreements and joint-action waivers for disputes involving age discrimination. Under the bill, individuals alleging age discrimination against people 40 or older can choose whether to pursue their claims in court rather than being forced into arbitration. Courts, rather than arbitrators, will determine whether the law applies to arbitration agreements in age discrimination cases. The bill applies to disputes arising or accruing after its enactment.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
6 cosponsors
Actions (2)
- Sep 3, 2025 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary. · house
- Sep 3, 2025 Introduced in House
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Text versions (1)
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Full text
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
September 3, 2025
Mr. Lawler introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To amend title 9 of the United States Code with respect to arbitration of disputes involving age discrimination.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Protecting Older Americans Act of 2025”.
SEC. 2. PREDISPUTE ARBITRATION OF DISPUTES INVOLVING AGE DISCRIMINATION.
(a) In General.—Title 9 of the United States Code is amended by adding at the end the following:
“CHAPTER 5—ARBITRATION OF DISPUTES INVOLVING AGE DISCRIMINATION
“Sec. “501. Definitions. “502. No validity or enforceability. “Sec. 501. Definitions “In this chapter:
“(1) Age discrimination dispute.—The term ‘age discrimination dispute’ means a dispute relating to conduct that is alleged to constitute age discrimination against a person who is not less than 40 years of age in any form, including disparate treatment, disparate impact, harassment, and retaliation, that is prohibited under applicable Federal, Tribal, or State law (including local law).
“(2) Predispute arbitration agreement; predispute joint- action waiver.—The terms ‘predispute arbitration agreement’ and ‘predispute joint-action waiver’ have the meanings given the terms in section 401. “Sec. 502. No validity or enforceability
“(a) In General.—Notwithstanding any other provision of this title, at the election of the person alleging conduct constituting an age discrimination dispute, or the named representative of a class or in a collective action alleging such conduct, no predispute arbitration agreement or predispute joint-action waiver shall be valid or enforceable with respect to a case which is filed under Federal, Tribal, or State law and relates to the age discrimination dispute.
“(b) Determination of Applicability.—An issue as to whether this chapter applies with respect to a dispute shall be determined under Federal law. The applicability of this chapter to an agreement to arbitrate and the validity and enforceability of an agreement to which this chapter applies shall be determined by a court, rather than an arbitrator, irrespective of whether the party resisting arbitration challenges the arbitration agreement specifically or in conjunction with other terms of the contract containing such agreement, and irrespective of whether the agreement purports to delegate such determinations to an arbitrator.”.
(b) Technical and Conforming Amendments.—
(1) In general.—Title 9 of the United States Code is amended—
(A) in section 2, by inserting “or 5” before the period at the end;
(B) in section 208, in the second sentence, by inserting “or 5” before the period at the end; and
(C) in section 307, in the second sentence, by inserting “or 5” before the period at the end.
(2) Table of chapters.—The table of chapters for title 9, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:
“5. Arbitration of disputes involving age discrimination.. 501.”.
SEC. 3. APPLICABILITY.
This Act, and the amendments made by this Act, shall apply with respect to any dispute or claim that arises or accrues on or after the date of enactment of this Act. <all>
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