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House Natural Resources subcommittee examines claims that EJA is being used as litigation funding for environmental groups
Summary
Republican members and witnesses told a House Natural Resources subcommittee that the Equal Access to Justice Act has been exploited by well-funded environmental nonprofits to recover large attorney-fee awards and delay agency projects; Democrats and law professors countered that EJA remains essential for low-resourced plaintiffs and that safeguards limit frivolous claims.
WASHINGTON — Republican members of the House Natural Resources subcommittee opened a Dec. 9 hearing by saying the Equal Access to Justice Act (EJA) has been used by some environmental nonprofits to recoup large attorney-fee awards and to pursue what they described as repeated procedural litigation that delays agency projects.
“We're here to talk about the abuses of the Equal Access to Justice Act by the environmental NGOs,” Chair Gosar said at the start of the hearing, citing federal agency payments he said totaled about $24,800,000 from fiscal 2019 through 2024 and saying roughly 76% of those awards went to environmental nonprofits.
The hearing brought together witnesses who detailed how they say EJA is applied in practice and offered reforms. Regina Lennox, senior litigation counsel for Safari Club International, said large nonprofits exploit a 501(c)(3) exemption to the statute’s financial limits, receiving fee awards for routine or procedural wins. Lennox recommended requiring the same net-worth cap for 501(c)(3) organizations as for other entities, limiting the number or amount of awards per organization, barring awards for purely procedural relief, rescinding exceptions to the statutory hourly cap, and requiring courts to report EJA awards directly.
“A government should not subsidize wealthy…
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