November 3, 2009
The Honorable Eric H. Holder
Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Dear Attorney General Holder:
In an open and democratic political system, it is important that United States citizens have reasonable access to the justice system to seek redress from the federal government. The Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) is intended to force transparency and accountability on the large bureaucracies of the federal government. We support this goal. We write today, however, to express great concern about the apparent abuse of EAJA by certain organizations, and the lack of accountability and transparency in the operation and distribution of funds under EAJA that have contributed to this abuse.
As you know, EAJA was established by Congress to ensure that individuals, small businesses or public interest groups with limited financial capacity could seek judicial redress from unreasonable government actions. EAJA allows plaintiffs to seek reimbursement from the federal government for attorney’s fees related to the case brought against the government itself. Many small businesses, non-profit institutions and individuals have used EAJA exactly as it was intended. Unfortunately, we are concerned the lack of government oversight of EAJA payments has allowed some groups to circumvent Congressional intent with respect to this law.
Attached is a document submitted by an independent law firm that outlines the amount of tax-payer dollars spent by the Forest Service on reimbursement of attorney’s fees between 2003 and 2005. Should these numbers prove accurate, we are alarmed at both the amount of taxpayer dollars diverted from agency budgets, and the high volume of court cases filed. We are concerned that under the guise of “public interest,” some organizations with a narrowly focused political agenda regarding the management of public lands in the west are abusing the Congressional intent of EAJA.
In order to more carefully examine this issue, Members of Congress and the general public should have full access to data that give us a more accurate representation of how EAJA is administered. Importantly, the Equal Access to Justice Act provided for two annual reports to Congress: one regarding agency awarded payments by the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS), and the other regarding court awarded payments by the Attorney General. However, in 1995 Congress defunded ACUS and repealed the Attorney General’s EAJA reporting requirement, thus ending any Congressional oversight of EAJA. We understand that ACUS was reauthorized and appropriated $1.5 million in March of 2009, but has no staff to date. We are not supportive of additional federal bureaucracies, but fear that without any reporting requirement, agencies have simply ceased to monitor the administration of EAJA. A simple online database of administrative, judicial and agreed settlement payments would be efficient and effective in restoring Congress’ oversight responsibility.
With that in mind, we request that the Department of Justice respond to us with an explanation about how the Department tracks EAJA disbursements. If no such tracking exists, we encourage DoJ to create a central, searchable EAJA database. The database should indicate the organization’s name, the total amount of attorney’s fees reimbursed, and the case under which attorney’s fees were awarded. A central database under DoJ auspices would be the most transparent and efficient means of bringing EAJA back into the sunshine.
EAJA is an important tool for protecting citizens’ rights against the federal government. Sadly, its abuse undoubtedly has far reaching consequences on public lands management decisions and for all American taxpayers. We urge the creation of a database to bring transparency and accountability to these public interest groups, and look forward to your reply.
Sincerely,
_________________________ _________________________
Representative Cynthia M. Lummis Representative Rob Bishop
Representatives: Senators:
Representative Devin Nunes Senator John Barrasso, M.D.
Representative Wally Herger Senator John Ensign
Representative Michael K. Simpson Senator Michael B. Enzi
Representative Jason Chaffetz
Representative John Shadegg
Representative Doug Lamborn
Representative Kenny Marchant
Representative Denny Rehberg
Representative Scott Garrett
Representative Todd Akin
Representative Blaine Luetkemeyer
Representative K. Michael Conaway
Representative Trent Franks
Representative Paul Broun
Representative Glenn Thompson
Representative Duncan Hunter
Representative Tom McClintock
Representative Dean Heller
