Congressman Jason Smith’s taxpayer protection legislation passed the U.S. House of Representatives today. Smith’s legislation will prevent radical liberal groups from taking Missourians’ tax dollars and imposing burdensome government regulations.
“There’s a massive loophole called ‘sue and settle’ that’s hurting Missourians, and I’m doing everything I can to fix it,” said Congressman Smith.
The wasteful “sue and settle” process occurs when a federal agency accepts a lawsuit from an outside advocacy organization and then, rather than defend itself, the agency settles the lawsuit out of court in a closed-door agreement.
“Sue and settle” agreements usually involve the U.S. taxpayer paying attorney fees for the radical organization. Between 2009 and 2012, these lawsuits resulted in more than 100 new regulations and tens of millions of tax dollars spent on compliance costs.
Under the Obama Administration, there were almost twice as many settlements as there were during both President Bush and President Clinton’s Administrations combined.
Smith’s bill would remove the incentive for outside groups to sue the federal government by barring the federal government from paying the attorney’s fees in any environmental law case arising under the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, or the Endangered Species Act.
“It’s wrong for Washington to leave the ‘sue and settle’ loophole open and waste Missourians hard-earned money paying attorney fees for radical environmentalist groups and other radical, left wing organizations,” said Congressman Smith. “I’m proud that my legislation to fix this problem was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives.”
