Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I would like to begin by thanking Representative Doug Collins and Constitution Ranking Member Steve Cohen 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 pursuant to the Equal Access to Justice Act. Nor does the government compile and report on why these fees and expenses were paid 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 This is because, in 1995, Congress repealed the Department of Justice's reporting requirements and defunded the Administrative Conference of the United States, the agency charged with reporting this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 reestablished in 2010, but the requirements to report on fee and cost payments have not been reenacted. Accordingly, there has been no official governmentwide 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.…”