Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I begin by thanking Representative Doug Collins of Georgia and the Constitution and Civil Justice Subcommittee Ranking Member Steve Cohen of 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 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 This is because, in 1995, Congress repealed the Department of Justice's reporting requirements and defunded the Administrative Conference of the United States, the agency charged with reporting this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. The Administrative Conference was established 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.…”