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For Immediate Release
August, 05 2015, 08:30am EDT
Contact:
Jamie Pang, (858) 699-4153, jpang@biologicaldiversity.org
GAO Senate Testimony, Report Debunk Republican Criticism of Environmental Lawsuits
Trade, Industry Groups File 50 Percent More EPA Lawsuits Than Conservation Groups
WASHINGTON
In a hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works subcommittee, Alfredo Gomez of the Government Accountability Office testified today that lawsuits from environmental groups have a limited impact on the EPA's funding and priorities, but do force the agency to meet legal deadlines to take actions such as, among other things, setting air-quality standards that protect public health. The testimony directly contradicts politically driven assertions by congressional Republicans that environmental lawsuits are impeding the work of EPA and other federal agencies.
The GAO issued a report accompanying the testimony documenting the fact that trade associations and private industries filed many more lawsuits than environmental groups, with these interests responsible for 48 percent of lawsuits against the EPA from 1995 to 2011. That's compared to just 30 percent for citizen and national environmental groups.
"Republicans have complained for years that lawsuits brought by environmental groups impede the ability of agency's like the EPA to do their jobs," said Jamie Pang, endangered species campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity. "The GAO's testimony and report shows this is false and that industries seeking to undermine protections for clean air and water file the most lawsuits. The real story is that Republicans are angered by the success of environmental groups in enforcing environmental laws and ensuring public health and safety."
Federal laws including the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act contain citizen suit provisions that allow environmental groups and others to force agencies to implement more stringent standards to clean our air and water and otherwise protect the environment. These provisions have allowed citizens to repeatedly enforce deadlines in the environmental statutes, actions that result in environmental protections.
"Citizens and nonprofits can, and should, hold the government accountable to protect clean air and water and endangered species," said Pang. "Environmental lawsuits tip the scales of justice away from deep pocketed and well-connected industries back towards environmental protections that benefit us all."
EPA officials, in their official response to the GAO report, said they hoped it would finally end these "unfounded allegations."
The new GAO report can be read here.
At the Center for Biological Diversity, we believe that the welfare of human beings is deeply linked to nature — to the existence in our world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because diversity has intrinsic value, and because its loss impoverishes society, we work to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. We do so through science, law and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters and climate that species need to survive.
(520) 623-5252LATEST NEWS
Trump Quietly Dishes Out More Tax Breaks to Rich Investors While Slashing Food Aid for Millions
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Nov 08, 2025
The Trump administration is quietly waging an all-out regulatory war on a Biden-era corporate tax that aimed to prevent large companies from dodging their tax liabilities while reporting huge profits.
The corporate alternative minimum tax (CAMT) was enacted as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, Democratic legislation that former President Joe Biden signed into law in 2022. The CAMT requires highly profitable US corporations to pay a tax of at least 15% on their so-called book profits, the figures reported to shareholders.
As the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy has explained: "Many of the special breaks that corporations use to avoid taxes work by allowing companies to report profits to the IRS that are much smaller than their book profits. Corporate leaders prefer to report low profits to the IRS (to reduce taxes) and high profits to the public (to attract investors)."
But since President Donald Trump took office in January, his administration has issued guidance and regulatory proposals designed to gut the CAMT. The effort is a boon to corporate giants and rich private equity investors at a time when the Trump administration is relentlessly attacking programs for low-income Americans, including Medicaid and nutrition assistance.
The New York Times reported Saturday that "with its various tax relief provisions, the administration is now effectively adding hundreds of billions of dollars in new breaks for big businesses and investors" on top of the trillions of dollars in tax cuts included in the Trump-GOP budget law enacted over the summer.
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Why would corporations spend millions on Trump's ballroom or bitcoin?
Because they're getting billions in unlegislated tax breaks.
We've gone from a system where the rich must pay taxes for public services, to one where they must pay the president for private favors.
— Tom Malinowski (@Malinowski) November 8, 2025
The administration's assault on the CAMT has drawn scrutiny from members of Congress.
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He continued:
But as I read the order, which says a lot more than a typical “administrative stay” from the Court, Jackson was stuck between a rock and a hard place—given the incredibly compressed timing that was created by the circumstances of the case.
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BREAKING: Students and faculty from across NYC have come together to tell Apollo CEO Marc Rowan that it’s going to be a lot harder than he thinks for billionaire greed to destroy higher education.
[image or embed]
— Sunrise Movement (@sunrisemvmt.bsky.social) November 7, 2025 at 11:43 AM
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Professors from multiple schools came together for a rally at Central Connecticut State University, according to Connecticut Post.
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At the University of Kansas, provost Barbara Bichelmeyer confirmed last month to The University Daily Kansan that KU will not sign the compact. However, students still demonstrated on Friday.
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