Posted on 03/26/2018 4:08:33 PM PDT by Jacquerie
Sue and Settle.
Over the years, special interest groups skirted the regulatory process by using lawsuits that seek to force federal agencies – especially EPA – to issue regulations that advance their interests and priorities, on their specified timeframe. During this process, known as “sue and settle,” EPA would get sued by an outside party that asked the court to compel the Agency to take certain steps, either through change in a statutory duty or enforcing timelines set by the law, and then EPA would acquiesce through a consent decree or settlement agreement, affecting the Agency’s obligations under the statute.
“Sue and settle” cases establish Agency obligations without participation by states and/or the regulated community; foreclose meaningful public participation in rulemaking; effectively force the Agency to reach certain regulatory outcomes; and, cost the American taxpayer millions of dollars.
In fulfilling his promise to end the practice of regulation through litigation that has harmed the American public, EPA Administrator Pruitt issued an Agency-wide directive in October 2017 designed to end “sue and settle” practices within the Agency, providing an unprecedented level of public participation and transparency in EPA litigation, in addition to consent decrees and settlement agreements. Advisory Committees EPA’s Federal Advisory Committees (FACs) provide invaluable, independent scientific advice to the Agency. However, according to EPA calculations, in just three years, members of three of EPA’s FACs – the Science Advisory Board (SAB), Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC), and the Board of Scientific Counselors (BOSC) – received upwards of $77 million in direct EPA grant funding while concurrently serving on these committees.
(Excerpt) Read more at epa.gov ...
BTW the taxpayers financed both ends of these lawsuits.
Yeah, the Obama EPA gave ginormous grants to enviro groups to sue the EPA and get their destructive social justice policies set in stone. This isn’t free government.
It isn’t just the EPA.
It is all versions of the Federal Bureaucracy.
Much labor law has been done this way.
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