Hageman’s Expedited Appeals Review Act Passes the House of Representatives

Washington, D.C. - Today, Congresswoman Hageman's Expedited Appeals Review Act (EARA) passed the House of Representatives. The bill will provide those individuals and businesses appealing before the Department of the Interior's Board of Land Appeals (IBLA) the opportunity to file for an expedited review so they can quickly go to court in front of a neutral arbiter.

Under current law, challengers of an agency decision within the Department of Interior (DOI), must appeal to the IBLA, an administrative court that is also housed within the DOI itself. The use of administrative courts poses a variety of constitutional issues, including in relation to the separation of powers, as the agencies who adopt the regulations then pursue enforcement of them through their own in-house court system, such as the IBLA. This system tips the scale in favor of the agency who enjoy outsized success before their own courts, with the DOI winning 98% of the challenges that are filed before the IBLA and decided on the merits.

"After spending three decades practicing law and witnessing cases argued before agency-appointed judges on numerous occasions, and then being forced to wait as the IBLA delayed issuing a decision, it is fulfilling to see this bill to move forward," Hageman stated. "The government works for the people, not the other way around. The EARA creates an alternative path for expedited review, allowing stakeholders to request an accelerated decision of their appeals within six months of the request. It gives parties the opportunity to expedite the process and pursue an impartial route in circumstances where the IBLA is failing to timely address matters under its review."

House Natural Resource Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman (AR-04) said in support of the bill, "As of today, there are more than 650 backlogged appeals before the Interior Board of Land Appeals, some a decade old. Ms. Hageman's bill will revive the process and ensure appellants get their day in court by requiring the board to issue final decisions in a timely manner. I thank her for her work on this bill."

The Expedited Appeals Review Act ensures that if IBLA fails to make a decision within 18 months of the appeal being filed, the applicant can demand an expedited review. The IBLA then has six months to resolve the case. Failure to do so allows for the non-agency party to proceed to an Article III district court where they will be granted the opportunity to conduct discovery and develop the administrative record.

Background:

• The IBLA is a regulatorily constructed, pseudo-judicial, administrative court within the Department of the Interior. It oversees appeals of agency actions, including those from the Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, Office of Natural Resources Revenue, and Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement.
• The IBLA currently has a backlog of over 650 pending appeals dating back to 2014. The IBLA receives, on average, 290 appeals per fiscal year. Of those cases that are not resolved on jurisdictional or procedural grounds, only 2 percent are decided in favor of the appellant.
• During an appeal, the agency establishes the administrative record. Frequently, the record is heavily redacted and purposefully excludes documents that favor the appellant. In fact, IBLA judges have explicitly found that the Department compiled administrative records in bad faith and in a biased manner.
• As a member of the House Judiciary Committee, last year Rep. Hageman spearheaded an oversight hearing titled "Reining in the Administrative State: Agency Adjudication and Other Agency Action" which exposed the unconstitutionality of administrative courts. She has also introduced the Seventh Amendment Restoration Act to enact broader reforms for all administrative courts.
• Prior to taking office as Wyoming's lone congressional member, Harriet Hageman was an attorney defending individuals and entities against government agencies, winning cases against several of the agencies that are within the Department of Interior.
  

###