Hunt 2 Conserve salutes Rep. Mike Rulli (R-OH) for authoring legislation to reign in nonprofit organizations continually abusing a 45-year-old law that costs taxpayers millions annually. Both H2C and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation support the measure. 

The Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) was enacted with good intentions to give small businesses and individuals the ability to fight an unresponsive government in court. However, by letting well-funded and litigious environmental organizations get their lawyers’ fees paid, the incentive to file suits and delay important habitat management projects has only grown. Litigation is now one of the biggest barriers to wildlife habitat improvement on federal lands.  

Rep. Rulli calls for fairness, transparency and limits on the size of attorney fees nonprofit groups can claim and receive. 

Hunt 2 Conserve agrees with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF), an affiliated partner, that EAJA needs to be reformed. The current law authorizes attorney fees to individuals and businesses that win cases against the U.S. Government, but eligibility requirements apply to individuals (maximum net worth of $2 million) and businesses (maximum net worth of $7 million). There are no eligibility limits applied to 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations. As a result of this costly loophole, large and well-funded litigant environmental organizations are getting paid with taxpayer money to sue taxpayer-funded agencies to stop habitat management projects important to elk, mule deer, moose, bears and a plethora of other wildlife, bird and fish species.  

House Hearing Spotlights Abuse  

The House Committee on Natural Resources held a May 20, 2026, hearing to examine how nonprofit organizations use and abuse EAJA to pad their bottom lines. 

The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), a well-known animal rights and anti-hunting organization that prides itself in suing the federal government, received $23.4 million in taxpayer funding over the past five years for doing so, according to Ken Braun, Capital Research Center managing editor, who offered testimony on Capitol Hill. That total equals 13.6 percent of CBD’s total annual revenue over that time. 

“EAJA provides for an award of attorney fees to a qualified prevailing party ‘unless the court finds that the position of the United States was substantially justified or that special circumstances make an award unjust,’” said Lawson E. Fite, former U.S. Department of Justice environmental attorney.  

Fite testified that various organizations cited the Endangered Species Act to use the EAJA to pocket more than $20.2 million over the last five years. 

Click here to watch a recording of the hearing. 

A Longtime Call for Reform 

RMEF is a longtime proponent of EAJA reform. Below are a few examples: 

• May 2026: Met with congressional staffers to discuss legislation to reign in EAJA payments 
• October 2025: Joined forced with the Safari Club International to offer an informational seminar for congressional staffers to learn about EAJA 
• May 2025: Supplied Congress with provisions to save money by restricting lawsuits and settlements 
• September 2021: Published an in-depth article about EAJA abuse, which has since been submitted to congressional committees as an informational source 
• April 2019: Spread the word about data showing environmental groups pocketed more than $9 million in EAJA fees and settlement awards between 2011 and 2018 
• February 2015: Called out CBD for collecting more than $15 million in attorney fees (aka taxpayer money) via EAJA over a four-year period 

About Hunt 2 Conserve 

Hunt 2 Conserve is a 501(c)4 nonprofit organization affiliated with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Its mission is to advance a legacy of hunting and conservation by educating, activating and developing stewards and defenders of these fundamentally American ideals. For more information, go to hunt2conserve.org.