Open Book on Equal Access to Justice Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. DAINES. Madam Speaker, I want to thank the gentlelady from Wyoming (Mrs. Lummis), as well as the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Cohen) for their bipartisan support in this most important bill.

I rise in strong support of H.R. 2919, the Open Book on Equal Access to Justice Act, which increases transparency and works to ensure that the Equal Access to Justice Act, or EAJA, does what it was always intended to do: protect citizens and small businesses against the limited resources of the Federal Government when they have to go to court.

This law was written to give individuals like our veterans, seniors, and small businesses a way to dispute unfair treatment by the government. However, the original intent of EAJA has been lost in a sea of habitual litigation, especially when it involves the management of our natural resources and our public lands and projects that bring much-needed jobs and tax revenues

to local communities. Much of this litigation is awarded with millions of hard-earned taxpayer dollars. That is unacceptable.

In Montana, we have seen firsthand the consequences of some of this litigation. Montanans rely on healthy forests and rangelands for their livelihoods. Loggers, ranchers, miners, outfitters and guides, and others, rely on healthy land management to feed their families.

In recent decades, inflexible Federal policies and unrelenting appeals and lawsuits have imposed a huge administrative burden on our Federal agencies, limited our mills' access to timber, and ultimately resulted in the mismanagement of our forests, leaving our homes and businesses at risk for wildfire and crippling job growth in the timber industry.

In Montana, we used to have 30 sawmills. Today, we have just nine. Collaborative projects that the Montana timber industry and conservation leaders have spent countless hours negotiating are sometimes stopped in court. True conservation is on-the-ground stewardship by hardworking individuals directly reliant on the land. It is not done in the courtroom.

At the very least, the American people ought to know how much of their hard-earned tax dollars are going towards these litigants and the information that led to their claims against the Federal agency. The Open Book on Equal Access to Justice Act will provide that much-needed transparency which, hopefully, can limit these lawsuits and help save hundreds of American jobs.

I urge support for H.R. 2919.

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