Congressman Tom Tiffany (WI-07) and Congresswoman Harriet Hageman (WY-At Large) introduced the Fixing Egregiously Expensive Suits Act, or FEES Act for short.
The Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) was enacted in 1980 to help ordinary Americans challenge federal overreach. It was intended to protect veterans, Social Security recipients, small businesses, and other individuals from prohibitive legal costs when taking action against the federal government. Instead, well-funded environmental organizations have transformed EAJA into a taxpayer-funded revenue stream to finance politically motivated litigation that has little to do with justice and everything to do with advancing their agenda.
“EAJA was enacted to give veterans, small businesses, and everyday Americans a fair shot at challenging government overreach. Instead, it has become a cash machine for well-funded environmental groups that sue federal agencies and stick taxpayers with the bill. The FEES Act shuts down that gravy train and returns EAJA to the people it was meant to serve,” said Congressman Tiffany.
“Radical environmental groups have exploited the Equal Access to Justice Act for decades, using taxpayer dollars to fund sue-and-settle schemes that undermine responsible land management and block critical projects across the West. The FEES Act closes loopholes and restores the original intent of EAJA by limiting attorney fee awards to parties with real, direct stakes in outcomes, not well-funded activist organizations gaming the system at the public’s expense. The American people deserve a federal government that can actually do its job without being held hostage by serial litigants,” said Congresswoman Hageman.
From fiscal years 2019 through 2024, the Department of the Interior and USDA awarded approximately $24.8 million under EAJA, with 76% of those funds flowing to a small number of environmental organizations and their lawyers, whose fees have been reimbursed at rates as high as $500 per hour—all at taxpayer expense.
“The American Forest Resource Council supports the FEES Act because it restores accountability and transparency to the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA). Too often, taxpayers are forced to fund attorney fee awards associated with lawsuits that delay critical forest management, wildfire reduction, and public safety projects for years. These commonsense EAJA reforms will help reduce incentives for serial litigation, improving the ability of federal land managers to steward public lands and protect nearby communities,” said Travis Joseph, President/CEO of the American Forest Resource Council.
“American ranchers have felt the impact of radical activists’ exploitation of taxpayer-funded litigation for decades. What started as a well-intended and much-needed tools for average Americans to settle issues like veterans’ benefits and small business claims quickly was corrupted by groups who wanted to stop active management and science-based decisions across the country. Well-financed environmental groups that only exist to sue the government and recoup their attorneys’ fees should not have their agenda funded by taxpayer dollars. Thank you to Representatives Tiffany and Hageman for recognizing the need to end the cycle of sue-and-settle that has undermined meaningful resource planning for far too long,” said Tim Canterbury, Public Lands Council President.
“Repeat litigants have weaponized taxpayer funds and abused EAJA for far too long. This bill delivers needed reforms to curb ‘sue-and-settle’ tactics that have allowed well-funded organizations to rely on procedural arguments that do not benefit wildlife or habitat,” said SCI CEO W. Laird Hamberlin. “The bill protects the original intent of EAJA by ensuring that only those with a real, direct stake in a case can recover fees, instead of repeatedly cashing in at taxpayers’ expense. SCI urges the House to rapidly consider and pass EAJA reform like this bill.”
“The Equal Access to Justice Act was enacted with good intentions to give small businesses and individuals the ability to fight an unresponsive government in court. However, by letting well-funded and litigious environmental organizations get their lawyers’ fees paid, the incentive to file suits and delay important habitat management projects has only grown. Litigation is now one of the biggest barriers to wildlife habitat improvement on federal lands. We support the FEES Act introduced by Representative Tom Tiffany as a commonsense reform to get our foresters and biologists back in the field and out of the court room,” said the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.
Supporting organizations include: The American Forest Resource Council, Public Lands Council and NCBA Natural Resources, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, and Safari Club International.
The FEES Act includes the following reforms to the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA):
- Limits attorney fee awards to prevailing parties with a direct, personal financial interest in the case, such as those involving personal injury, property damage, or an unpaid agency disbursement.
- Caps EAJA awards at $200,000 per adversary adjudication and limits recipients to no more than three adversary adjudications per calendar year.
- Requires courts to reduce or deny attorney fee awards for parties that acted in bad faith or engaged in dilatory, oppressive, or otherwise improper conduct.
- Prohibits attorney fee awards when a lawsuit is resolved through a settlement that results in the creation of a new federal regulation or guidance document.
- Creates a carve out so lawsuits related to Social Security or Veterans Affairs are not impacted.
- Exempts successful class action lawsuits from these new limitations.
- Directs the Secretary of the Interior to convene an independent panel to evaluate the law’s impact and submit a report to the House Committee on Natural Resources and the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
You can view the text of the FEES Act here.
