Lawmakers just made it nearly impossible for consumers to sue financial companies like Equifax

Senate Republicans voted in Tuesday to kill rules that would have allowed Americans harmed by financial companies, including scandal-plagued Equifax and Wells Fargo, to sue.

In a vote so narrow Vice President Mike Pence was required to break what had been 50-to-50 deadlock, the Senate moved to repeal the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s arbitration rule. The rule—announced in early July and slated to apply to contracts signed after March 2018—prohibited major financial institutions from using fine print in buried in consumer contracts to block class-action lawsuits by consumers.

The rule was killed using the existing Congressional Rule Act, under which Congress can block new regulatory measures. Since the House of Representatives previously voted in July to repeal the rule, Tuesday’s Senate vote propels the legislation to President Trump’s desk, and he is expected to sign the bill shortly.

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Tuesday’s vote was a huge blow for the CFPB, an agency that has spent years studying and formulating rules.

Arbitration clauses are commonplace in the financial industry: About three-fourths of banks analyzed by Pew Charitable Trusts, for instance, had mandatory arbitration agreements in place. The clauses mean customers have no recourse but to bring any disputes to private, arbitration panels. In general, that keeps many of the details shrouded in secrecy, as in the case of the Wells Fargo account fraud scandal, according to consumer advocates. Additionally, the arbitration process itself is often stacked against consumers, consumer advocates say.

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The financial industry lobbied hard against the CFPB’s rule, arguing it added unnecessary regulations and that arbitration can benefit consumers because it can be faster and less expensive than going to court.

Contrary to claims made by the rule’s opponents, the CFPB’s rule would not have banned financial institutions—a group that includes banks, credit card companies, student lenders, payday lenders, debt collectors, and credit reporting companies—from using arbitration to settle disputes. But unlike the current system, consumers would have the option to voluntarily agree to the forum after the dispute arose.

Consumer groups spent months fighting the financial industry’s attempts to kill the rule, putting together research supporting the rule and placing targeted ads in key states. In fact, two groups Public Citizen and Americans for Financial Reform sent the Monopoly Man to deliver bags of money to U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton’s (R-Ark.), a co-sponsor of the Senate repeal legislation.

This article originally appeared in Time.com