FROM WASHINGTON TIMES: The Biden administration set records for sue-and-settle cases, according to a new study that said the EPA paid out $10.9 million in lawyers’ fees from 2021 to 2024 while working with environmentalists to set policies outside of what the law requires.
Sue-and-settle cases are where plaintiffs go to court, negotiate consent decrees setting new policies, then are awarded payment for their attorneys’ time.
Cases are particularly prolific in environmental policy, where the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act are prominent battlegrounds for sue-and-settle.
Critics say it sets up a perverse incentive for administrations to work with environmentalists to force the government into policies that couldn’t make it through Congress. Because they are legal settlements, they are binding on future administrations, just as if they were written into law.
Spending watchdog Open the Books found that the government paid out $20.3 million in lawyers’ fees associated with hundreds of settlements from 2013 to 2024. These came under all presidents during that time, but the amounts awarded are vastly different.
Under President Obama, $5.7 million was paid in these fees. President Trump paid $3.6 million during his first four years. President Biden outdid them all, awarding a whopping $10.9 million during hi single term.
Those receiving the awards included, according to Open the Books, the Sierra Club, with over $4 million, as well as Northwest Environmental Advocates, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Environmental Law & Policy Center, and the Natural Resources Defense Council, who each collected at least $1 million.
When activists sue the EPA and the EPA welcomes it, taxpayers get the bill.
Biden’s EPA quietly paid $10.9M in attorneys’ fees through sue-and-settle cases.
Open the Books followed the money. https://t.co/p9IR0QXzqb
— Open the Books (@open_the_books) December 3, 2025
Biden’s EPA paid $10.9 million in lawyers’ fees in sue-and-settle caseshttps://t.co/zPIEySSeSk pic.twitter.com/qFpHt1dT9B
— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) December 4, 2025
READ MORE AT WASHINGTON TIMES
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