Open Book on Equal Access to Justice Act

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2919) to amend titles 5 and 28, United States Code, to require annual reports to Congress on, and the maintenance of databases on, awards of fees and other expenses to prevailing parties in certain administrative proceedings and court cases to which the United States is a party, and for other purposes.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on H.R. 2919, currently under consideration.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I would like to begin by thanking Representative Cynthia Lummis and the Constitution Subcommittee ranking member again, Mr. Cohen from Tennessee, for introducing this important government transparency legislation.

Every year, pursuant to the Equal Access to Justice Act, the Federal Government, through settlement or court order, pays millions of dollars in legal fees and costs to parties to lawsuits and administrative adjudications that involve the Federal Government.

However, despite the large number of taxpayer dollars paid out each year through the Act, the Federal Government no longer comprehensively keeps track of the amount of fees and other expenses awarded, why these fees and expenses were awarded, and to whom these costs were awarded.

This is because, in 1995, Congress repealed the Department of Justice's reporting requirements and defunded the Administrative Conference of the United States, which is the agency charged with reporting this basic information to Congress--to us.

The Administrative Conference was reestablished in 2010, but the requirements to report the fee and cost payments have not been reenacted. Accordingly, there has been no official governmentwide accounting of this information since fiscal year 1994, almost 20 years ago.

This lack of transparency is troubling, given that the Equal Access to Justice Act is considered by many to be the most important Federal fee-shifting statute. Fundamentally, the Act recognizes that there is an enormous disparity of resources between the Federal Government and individuals and small businesses that seek to challenge the Federal actions.

Congress enacted the Equal Access to Justice Act to provide individuals, small businesses, and small nonprofit groups with financial assistance to bring suit against the Federal Government or to defend themselves from lawsuits brought by the Federal Government.

As the Supreme Court has noted, the Act was adopted with the ``specific purpose . . . of eliminating for the average person the financial disincentive to challenge unreasonable governmental actions.''

But how can we know if the Act is working well toward this end if we have no data on awards?

Without the data, this bill requires the Administrative Conference to compile and report that we have nothing more than anecdotal evidence as to whether the Act is working.

The legislation we are considering today will end this lack of transparency and will restore the reporting

requirements that were repealed back in 1995.

I want to, once again, thank Representatives Lummis and Cohen for introducing this bill. It is good legislation, and I urge my colleagues to support its passage.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Wyoming (Mrs. Lummis).

I yield the gentlewoman an additional 30 seconds.

Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Montana (Mr. Daines).

Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Collins).

Madam Speaker, having no further speakers, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 2919, the Open Book on Equal Access to Justice Act. I want to thank the ranking member, Steve Cohen, for joining me in introducing this legislation. The gentleman from Tennessee was the person from whom I inherited the hallowed halls of Longworth 1004. Our staff shared duties, including each other's phone duties when meetings were being held in our offices. It was a great partnership and a wonderful bipartisan relationship that I have enjoyed ever since coming to Congress.

I deeply thank the gentleman from Tennessee for his friendship. He was instrumental in securing bipartisan support for passage of H.R. 2919 through the Judiciary Committee.

H.R. 2919 reinstates the tracking and reporting of attorneys fees paid out by the Federal Government under the Equal Access to Justice Act, also known as EAJA.

EAJA was first enacted in 1980, with the goal of protecting small businesses and other citizens facing unreasonable government action. It was meant to address the David and Goliath situation that exists when a citizen has to go to court against the Federal Government's vast financial and legal resources.

Consistent with this theme, EAJA was amended in 1985 to facilitate its application to Social Security claims. It was again amended in 1992 to include claims before the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.

EAJA has been subject to numerous reviews and revisions over the years to keep it up to date. Its requirement for agencies to track and report on attorneys' fees helped inform Congress in its past efforts to improve the law. This transparency was also a safeguard for the Federal taxpayers who finance the law.

Prior to 1995, EAJA payments trickled out at a rate of about $3 million annually. But since tracking and reporting requirements were eliminated in 1995, EAJA has operated in the dark.

As a Government Accountability Office report made clear, most agencies do not track payments--and won't--unless Congress gives them direction to do so. Madam Speaker, that is why we are here today.

As the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Chabot), mentioned, we only have anecdotal evidence as to how much we are spending on attorney fees, which agencies pay out the fees, and for what types of claims. We need transparency to better monitor this law moving forward.

H.R. 2919 both reinstates transparency and improves it by requiring the information be posted online in a searchable database. We owe this to the small businesses, veterans, Social Security claimants, and others who rely on EAJA for their once-in-a-lifetime court battles with the Federal Government. And we owe it to the hardworking taxpayers who are financing this law.

I deeply appreciate it.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 2919.

Madam Speaker, in great appreciation and deference to the gentleman on the Judiciary Committee, and especially to my cosponsor, Mr. Cohen, I gratefully acknowledge his cosponsorship--he supported this bill--and the hard work of the House Judiciary Committee.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise in strong support of H.R. 2919, the Open Book on Equal Access to Justice Act, also known as the Longworth 1004 Act.

This bipartisan legislation makes a modest, but important improvement to the Equal Access to Justice Act, also known as EAJA. That Act, which was enacted in 1980, allows parties, under certain circumstances, to be awarded attorneys' fees and court costs when they prevail in litigation against the United States.

EAJA enables ordinary citizens, such as veterans, senior citizens, and advocates for clean air and clean water, to fight unfair or illegal government actions without fear of the court costs involved.

Over the years, the Act has succeeded, but since 1995, when certain reporting requirements were eliminated, we have had no reliable data on how much money the government has awarded in these proceedings. The public has a right to know how taxpayer funds are used, and Congress ought to be able to assess the impact and effectiveness of EAJA.

To address this failing, H.R. 2919 would require the Administrative Conference of the United States, or ACUS, a highly respected nonpartisan agency, to prepare an annual report for Congress on the fees and costs awarded in these cases. The reports would also include the number and nature of the claims involved.

The Conference would also be required to establish a publicly accessible, searchable database with this information, as well as the case name, the agency involved, and the basis of the award.

I am very pleased to sponsor this bill along with the gentlewoman from Wyoming (Mrs. Lummis), who has done a great job bringing this to this floor, shepherding it through to, hopefully, passage and becoming law. We have worked on a bipartisan basis to address this issue.

H.R. 2919 represents a compromise with respect to a broader bill related to EAJA which Mrs. Lummis previously introduced. It is an excellent example of what happens when there is bipartisan cooperation.

This legislation will promote greater transparency with respect to our government and provide valuable information for Congress and our citizens. It exemplifies the bipartisan cooperation we are capable of in this Chamber.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Wyoming (Mrs. Lummis).

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I want to thank the gentlelady from Wyoming (Mrs. Lummis), as well as the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Cohen) for their bipartisan support in this most important bill.

I rise in strong support of H.R. 2919, the Open Book on Equal Access to Justice Act, which increases transparency and works to ensure that the Equal Access to Justice Act, or EAJA, does what it was always intended to do: protect citizens and small businesses against the limited resources of the Federal Government when they have to go to court.

This law was written to give individuals like our veterans, seniors, and small businesses a way to dispute unfair treatment by the government. However, the original intent of EAJA has been lost in a sea of habitual litigation, especially when it involves the management of our natural resources and our public lands and projects that bring much-needed jobs and tax revenues to local communities. Much of this litigation is awarded with millions of hard-earned taxpayer dollars. That is unacceptable.

In Montana, we have seen firsthand the consequences of some of this litigation. Montanans rely on healthy forests and rangelands for their livelihoods. Loggers, ranchers, miners, outfitters and guides, and others, rely on healthy land management to feed their families.

In recent decades, inflexible Federal policies and unrelenting appeals and lawsuits have imposed a huge administrative burden on our Federal agencies, limited our mills' access to timber, and ultimately resulted in the mismanagement of our forests, leaving our homes and businesses at risk for wildfire and crippling job growth in the timber industry.

In Montana, we used to have 30 sawmills. Today, we have just nine. Collaborative projects that the Montana

timber industry and conservation leaders have spent countless hours negotiating are sometimes stopped in court. True conservation is on- the-ground stewardship by hardworking individuals directly reliant on the land. It is not done in the courtroom.

At the very least, the American people ought to know how much of their hard-earned tax dollars are going towards these litigants and the information that led to their claims against the Federal agency. The Open Book on Equal Access to Justice Act will provide that much-needed transparency which, hopefully, can limit these lawsuits and help save hundreds of American jobs.

I urge support for H.R. 2919.

I thank the gentleman from Ohio.

Madam Speaker, I am proud to rise in support of the Open Book on Equal Access to Justice Act, and I thank the gentlelady from Wyoming and the gentleman from Tennessee, my friend on the Judiciary Committee, for their hard work on this. Also, Mr. Chabot.

There are a lot of times we get to disagree on things, but this is one we can come together and agree on. And that is a good thing for not only our committee, it is good for the American people.

The Equal Access to Justice Act supports one of our Nation's founding principles--equal justice under the law--by making our legal system more accessible for all Americans.

Today's bipartisan legislation simply ensures that Equal Access to Justice programs observe commonsense reporting and transparency requirements. This good government bill will ensure proper oversight of this program by providing both Congress and the public the data they need to make informed decisions.

The original Equal Access to Justice Act rightfully included tracking and reporting requirements concerning payments made under the authority of this law. Taxpayers should not be on the hook for untold amounts of attorneys' fees for special interest groups that sue the Federal Government to change policy without public input.

My constituents simply don't believe their hard-earned money should go to groups that push their agenda through litigation instead of the regular legislative process. Congress has a responsibility to ensure that the Federal Government is truly working on behalf of the Americans who fund it. The Open Book on Equal Access to Justice Act will help ensure that the original law is working as Congress intended.

With greater transparency through reporting, the American people will have greater confidence that their tax dollars are being well spent.

I would like to thank again the sponsors for offering this. I am proud to be an original cosponsor on this.