Political Quotes

“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 This is because, in 1995, Congress repealed the Department of Justice's reporting requirements and defunded the Administrative Conference of the United States, which is the agency charged with reporting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.…”