U.S. House Republicans quickly put their disdain for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s new arbitration rule into action, voting yesterday 231-90 in favor of a resolution that would annul the regulation, which many community bankers believe to be overly burdensome.

The rule, which the CFPB announced earlier this month, would ban banks from using mandatory arbitration clauses, which are commonly used in credit card accounts, to deny consumers the right to file class action lawsuits.

CFPB Director Richard Cordray has argued the rule is needed so consumers can stand up for themselves without having to wait for the government to bring a suit forward, and so they are not prohibited from going after a company because they can’t afford attorney fees on their own.

“Right now, many contracts for consumer financial products like bank accounts and credit cards come with a mandatory arbitration clause that makes it virtually impossible for people to sue the company as a group if things go wrong,” he said in a statement just after announcing the rule earlier this month. “By blocking group lawsuits, mandatory arbitration clauses force consumers either to give up or to go it alone – usually over relatively small amounts that may not be worth pursuing on one’s own.”

According to a study by the CFPB, group lawsuits succeeded in bringing hundreds of millions of dollars in relief to millions of consumers each year, and at least 34 million members of group lawsuits received payments totaling $1 billion in cash direct to consumers, net of attorney’s fees and expenses.

Over the two years the CFPB examined final results of the study, in about one thousand arbitration cases, the arbitrators awarded a combined total of about $360,000 in relief to a total of 78 consumers.

Community banks are worried the rule would open them up to costly and labor-intensive litigation, which they say is not always the best way to deal with disputes. The new rule could also require banks to restructure their agreements with third-party credit card providers.

The vote in the House was mainly along party lines, with all Democrats voting against the resolution, and to therefore let the rule go into effect, while all but one Republican voted in favor of the resoulution.

Advocacy groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Bankers Associations and the Credit Union National Association praised the House vote to repeal the arbitration vote.

“CUNA, the leagues and credit unions fully support Congress and their efforts to repeal the CFPB’s arbitration rule and we will continue to actively engage with the Senate on this important issue,” Jim Nussle, CUNA president and CEO, said in a statement after the vote. “Credit unions frequently work with members to provide refunds, work out payment plans, and find other solutions to resolve a dispute. In its final rule the CFPB declined to recognize the unique size and structure of credit unions in the rule or the harm that class action litigation can cause to credit unions and their members.”

The resolution now heads to the Senate, which is likely to take up a vote later this year.