The gravy train is running off the tracks and you’ll be able hear the moaning of animal rightists and environmental extremists from Washington to Whackoville, as a substantial source of their income becomes extinct. Legislation being introduced in Congress is to effectively eliminate taxpayer-funded abuse of a system meant to help wildlife conservation. The legislation, a House Resolution and companion version in the Senate titled Government Litigation Savings Act, is to amend the existing Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA).
First a refresher course is in order. Congress designed the EAJA as a vehicle for individuals, small businesses or public interest organizations to have a voice against unreasonable government actions threatening their rights, privileges, or interests. To sweeten the rewards for successful campaigns against government entities, such as the U.S. Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management, these “cash-poor” organizations – that is, those for-profit corporations worth less than $7 million – are able to recoup legal fees, if they fight and win.
However, non-profit groups such as the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) – although they generate more than $100 million annually – are exempt because of their non-profit standing, and therefore, are able to pocket huge sums of taxpayers’ cash at the rate of $150 to $350 per hour for attorney fees charged to us taxpayers. Their strategy is simple: Overwhelm the system with hundreds of lawsuits, wait for the government to lose cases on technicalities, such as missing deadlines, and pick the pockets of taxpayers.
You want transparency? Forget it!
Public accountability and Congressional oversight have been forbidden by virtue of the Federal Reports Elimination and Sunset Act.in 1995. Nobody knows how much these groups have squeezed from the system except the groups themselves – and, they’re not talking, but they’re soon to be whining.
The Government Litigation Savings Act has evolved from a coalition of wildlife, agriculture, energy, mining and other resource-based groups spearheaded by Boone and Crockett Club. Club President Ben Wallace remarked on the measure, “We take very seriously the fact that taxpayer money and sportsmen-generated funding intended to support conservation are being wasted. We thank Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) and Representative Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) for introducing a bill that offers hope for reforming EAJA back to its original purpose-and relief for the most successful wildlife conservation system in the world.” Specifically, the Government Litigation Savings Act will prohibit organizations with a net worth exceeding $7 million from filing for EAJA funds; require that EAJA filers show a “direct and personal monetary interest” in the action to be eligible for payments; and cap the attorney fees environmental activists claim to be owed.
The coalition formed following a Boone and Crockett Club investigation of federal statutes that enable ongoing litigation at a high cost to wildlife and the American taxpayer. Club President Emeritus Lowell E. Baier, a Maryland-based attorney, led the effort over the past year. His preliminary findings are reported in two articles available free at www.boone-crockett.org. Baier also employed two full-time attorneys to research EAJA’s initial Congressional intent, its judicial interpretation and application, abuses, loopholes and possible remedies by Congress.
The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, has a limited budget and much of it has gone to extremists’ lawyers instead of genuine wildlife management. And, because of that, what’s good for HSUS is not necessarily good for wildlife, but it sure pays the salaries of its 8 full-time attorneys, executive pensions and salaries and media campaigns, which are aimed at the very sportsmen bearing a portion of outrageous settlement expenses.
And, while legal battles rage, time-sensitive government wildlife projects are put on hold, thus effectively blocking them, even if court rulings find in favor of government defendants. So, even if animal rightists and environmental extremists lose, they win. Not anymore.
I can hear the violins now and they’re playing my song.
