Source: United States Senator for Nebraska Deb Fischer
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) joined 34 of her colleagues in a bicameral letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland stating their opposition to the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) decision to allow federal payments from the Judgment Fund to support politically favored groups.
Taxpayer dollars back the monetary settlements that come from the Judgment Fund, a little-known Treasury account used to pay court settlements for lawsuits against the federal government. Currently, the DOJ seeks to return to the Obama-era practice of directing settlements to partisan, non-victim organizations that are not directly involved in legal cases with the government.
“Serious conflicts of interest arise and public trust is eroded when the DOJ requires defendants to donate to activist groups selected by the DOJ. What is even more alarming is the glaring lack of transparency; more than 11 years after the practice began, Congress and the American people still have no idea where or how the majority of funds directed to third parties, which amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars, was spent. By reviving this practice, President Biden is directly contradicting his promise to ‘usher in a new era of government transparency,’” said the senators.
The letter is written in response to the public comment period for the DOJ’s interim final rule published on May 10, 2022. If finalized, this rule would revoke current DOJ policy established in 2017, which sought to eliminate corrupt settlement agreements. The latest rule would reinstate previous practice, which was often used during the Obama administration, that allowed settling parties in a federal dispute to reduce their punishment by making “donations” to third party special interest groups of the DOJ’s choosing – creating an environment ripe for corruption and abuse.
Read the full text of the letter HERE.
Sen. Fischer has long pushed for better transparency and accountability to protect the taxpayer dollars that support the Judgment Fund and prevent its misuse.
In previous Congresses, Senator Fischer sponsored the Judgment Fund Transparency Act to disclose more details about settlements made from the fund. Provisions from that bill have been enacted into law.
In November, Sen. Fischer introduced the Judgment Fund Accountability Act. The bill would bar the Treasury Department from using the fund to issue payments to migrants who illegally crossed the border. The Biden administration was considering making such payments at the time.
You can learn more about the legislation and how the Judgment Fund works HERE.
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