FEDERAL AGENCIES: GOP resurrects bills targeting 'sue-and-settle' lawsuits
Jean Chemnick, E&E reporter
Greenwire: Thursday, February 5, 2015
Republicans on both sides of the Capitol reintroduced legislation yesterday aimed at limiting third-party litigants' roles in forcing federal agencies to regulate.
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.) reintroduced their companion bills from the last Congress that aim to curb "sue-and-settle" lawsuits by requiring an opportunity for public comment before a lawsuit is filed and by making it harder for third parties to show they have standing to sue.
The bills -- H.R. 712 and S. 378 -- would also expand opportunities for other parties to intervene in lawsuits. Texts of the measures haven't been posted yet.
The Grassley-Collins legislation cleared the House Judiciary Committee in 2013 but went no further. But with Republicans now in control of both chambers of Congress, backers of the legislation see an opening for nixing a practice that they say has led agencies to promulgate rules without the input of regulated entities.
Grassley said in a statement that sue and settle "makes a mockery of the public accountability and transparency protections."
"It also limits the ability of the executive branch to engage in principled decision making," he said. "This bill helps restore regulatory accountability by allowing for public scrutiny and comment on proposed federal regulations, and by making it easier for affected parties to take part in settlement negotiations."
Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman James Inhofe (R-Okla.), a co-sponsor of Grassley's measure, said in a statement the bill would eliminate one avenue for environmental activists "to advance their radical agenda."
"For too long, federal agencies and environmentalists have been shaping costly and burdensome regulations behind closed doors, shutting out elected officials, states and localities, and private citizens through a process called sue-and-settle," Inhofe said in a statement.
Inhofe said U.S. EPA's proposed and pending rules for power plants' carbon dioxide emissions, oil and gas operations' methane releases, tighter ozone emission limits and regional haze actions are all linked to sue and settle.
The Government Accountability Office stated in a report released in January that third-party lawsuits of this kind have a limited impact on agency rulemakings (E&ENews PM, Jan. 14).
GAO found that from May 2008 to June 2013, EPA issued 32 major regulations under various environmental laws. Of those, nine were air rules that stemmed from seven settlements in deadline lawsuits.
"None of the seven settlements included terms that finalized the substantive outcome of the rule," GAO said.
