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Statement of House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte - Markup of H.R. 3279, the “Open Book on Equal Access to Justice Act”

October 27, 2015
Chairman Goodlatte: I’d like to begin by thanking Representative Doug Collins (R-Ga.) and Constitution Subcommittee Ranking Member Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) 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 amount of taxpayer dollars paid out each year, the federal government no longer comprehensively keeps track of the amount of fees and other expenses awarded under theEqual Access to Justice Act. Nor does the government compile and report on 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 This is because in 1995 Congress repealed the Department of Justice’s reporting requirements and defunded the Administrative Conference of the United States, the agency charged with reporting this basic information to Congress. The Administrative Conference was re-established in 2010, but the requirements to report on fee and cost payments have not been re-enacted. Accordingly, there has been no official government-wide accounting of this information since fiscal year 1994—over 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 who seek to challenge federal actions. Congress enacted the Equal Access to Justice Act to provide individuals, small businesses, and small non-profit groups with financial incentives to challenge the federal government or defend themselves from lawsuits brought by the federal government.  As the Supreme Court has noted, the Act was adopted with the “specific purpose . . . [of] eliminat[ing] 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, we have nothing more than anecdotal evidence as to whether the Act is providing some measure of relief to the financial disincentive to seeking judicial and administrative redress against the federal government. The legislation we are considering today will end this lack of transparency and restore the reporting requirements that were repealed in 1995. I want to once again thank Representatives Collins and Cohen for introducing this bill and urge my colleagues to support its passage.Click here to learn more about today’s markup.