Environmental lawsuits: Bill would reform rule on payouts when government loses cases

In the coming battle over the Equal Access to Justice Act, the one thing everybody agrees on is nobody knows what's going on. "EAJA was something I was involved in as a young, newly crafted congressional aide back in the late '70s and early '80s," said Rep. Denny Rehberg, one of 38 co-sponsors of the Government Litigation Savings Act that's intended to reform the law. "I came into Congress in 2000, and had no idea the accounting had changed since I was involved in it. I had no idea why. It doesn't make sense." The Equal Access to Justice Act says any government agency that loses a lawsuit to a private individual, group or business must pay the legal costs of the winner. The money comes out of each agency's budget, rather than a central fund. And in the past couple of years, it's become the target of agriculture, sporting, energy and recreation groups as the "gravy train" that fuels environmental lawsuits. "When I was a congressional aide for Ron Marlenee, it was one of the single biggest issues brought by the National Federation of Independent Businesses," Rehberg said. "It was always intended to help small businesses having some kind of problem with federal government, so they had equal access to the court system without putting them out of business. "It's morphed into something entirely different that wasn't intended. It's become a cottage industry for lawsuits, especially in the environmental arena." The Equal Access Act was signed in 1980 by President Jimmy Carter and permanently funded in 1985 under President Ronald Reagan. In 1995, the requirement for annual accounting of EAJA awards lapsed and was never reinstated. Since then, no one has been able to track who's got what in legal-fee reimbursements...Other applicants for Equal Access to Justice money include businesses challenging federal agencies such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and military veterans fighting the Veterans Administration or Department of Defense. Because there's no central accounting of EAJA spending, there's no easy way to find out how much is spent. A spokesman at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service couldn't provide figures on how much it had paid in reimbursements, referring a reporter to the Department of Justice, which handles its legal affairs. A DOJ spokesman said he couldn't find Fish and Wildlife Service accounts either. But a phone call to the U.S. Forest Service Northern Region office in Missoula produced a six-page spreadsheet of EAJA payments made between 2000 and 2010. It showed $1,984,981 in payments over the decade, almost all to environmental organizations...more