On December 10, Member Scholar Dan Rohlf testified at a House Natural Resources subcommittee hearing. Rohlf refuted the absurd notion that environmental organizations are somehow “abusing” the Equal Access to Justice Act as they work to protect all Americans’ air, water, wildlands, wildlife, and environmental health.
In the conclusion to his written testimony, Rohlf noted:
The Equal Access to Justice Act serves essential functions in our system of environmental law and democratic governance. It enables citizens to vindicate the public interest in environmental protection by holding federal agencies accountable to statutory mandates. It ensures that procedural requirements and deadlines – which are far from mere technicalities – are actually observed. It facilitates settlements that serve environmental protection while reducing litigation costs. And it protects our basic system of government by preserving meaningful judicial review of executive action.
Proposals to weaken thus EAJA must be recognized for what they are – attempts to hollow out protection for our air, water, and ecosystems without having to persuade both the public and Congress to weaken environmental laws. At a time when federal agencies face increasing political pressure to ignore scientific evidence and violate statutory requirements, citizen enforcement through EAJA is more important than ever. The governance structure advocated by those calling for EAJA ‘reform’ – a system where agencies can violate environmental laws with impunity because citizens cannot afford to participate in enforcement as Congress intended – is unacceptable in any society that claims to value both environmental protection and the rule of law.
