HR 5341 · 116th Congress 2019–2021, ended

Discouraging Frivolous Lawsuits Act

Introduced Dec 6, 2019 Originated House Sponsor Tom Rice R-SC

Fact sheet

Latest action · Dec 9, 2019 Referred to the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment.

Progress

Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.

  1. IntroducedDec 6, 2019
  2. Passed HouseNot reached
  3. Passed SenateNot reached
  4. To the PresidentNot reached
  5. Became lawNot reached

Summary

Discouraging Frivolous Lawsuits Act

This bill revises requirements concerning (1) citizen suits under the Clean Water Act, (2) permits for wetlands, and (3) wetland mitigation.

Litigation costs (including reasonable attorney and expert witness fees) must be awarded to the prevailing party, thus the bill removes a court's discretion to award the fees. A prevailing party is defined as the party that prevails on more than half of the claims at issue.

In addition, the bill repeals the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to deny or restrict the use of any area as a disposal site for dredged or fill material when the discharge of those materials would have an unacceptable adverse effect on municipal water supplies, shellfish beds and fishery areas, wildlife, or recreational areas.

Finally, the bill revises mitigation requirements. Current law requires compensatory mitigation to replace the loss of aquatic resource functions in a watershed when a permit to discharge dredged or fill materials into navigable waters has unavoidable impacts on aquatic resources. This bill prohibits government entities from carrying out compensatory mitigation in excess of existing regulatory requirements.

Cosponsors 30

Members who signed on, in the order they did. All signed on Dec 6, 2019.

SeatCosponsorSigned on
R-NEAdrian SmithOriginalDec 6, 2019
R-WVAlexander X. MooneyOriginalDec 6, 2019
R-MDAndy HarrisOriginalDec 6, 2019
R-GAAustin ScottOriginalDec 6, 2019
R-TXBill FloresOriginalDec 6, 2019
R-OHBob GibbsOriginalDec 6, 2019
R-UTChris StewartOriginalDec 6, 2019
R-NCDavid RouzerOriginalDec 6, 2019
R-AKDon YoungOriginalDec 6, 2019
R-PAGlenn ThompsonOriginalDec 6, 2019
R-MTGreg GianforteOriginalDec 6, 2019
R-INJackie WalorskiOriginalDec 6, 2019
R-SCJeff DuncanOriginalDec 6, 2019
R-INJim BanksOriginalDec 6, 2019
R-CAKen CalvertOriginalDec 6, 2019
Show all 30 cosponsors

Actions 3

Everything that happened, newest first.

  1. Dec 9, 2019Referred to the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment.
  2. Dec 6, 2019Introduced in House
  3. Dec 6, 2019Referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

Subjects

Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Environmental Protection.

Text 1

Each version as it was printed, newest first.

  1. Dec 6, 2019Introduced in House

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Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov.