8-30 IAN Simpson and EAJA

 There is no need to reinvent the wheel. That said, I am going to read some comments from an interview by my colleague with Congressman Mike Simpson. I’m in the same office as my friend and colleague Jake Putnam of the Idaho Farm Bureau. He had a very unique opportunity to sit down with Congressman Simpson and talk to him at length. I want to read you some of Mr. Simpson’s comments because they apply to dozens and dozens of stories that I have done with him over the years. What I am going to cite are issues relating to grazing on public lands and the Equal Access to Justice Act which allows environmental lawyers to make huge profits by suing the government.

 “More and more organizations feel that grazing on public lands is inappropriate and they’d like to effectively remove cattle from public lands. I think that’s wrong. If you talk to the BLM and Forest Service grazing is a way of reducing fire hazards.”

Q: Is there good evidence that lawyers are suing the Federal Government, collecting fees and suing over again?

A:There’s evidence that attorney fees rewarded by the court are sometimes higher than what ordinary attorneys are paid.So it’s a cottage industry that’s built up, we need to end that.

When management decisions on a timber cut or a thinning are made, between 50 and 70-percent of the money is spent trying to make it bullet proof  So that the forest service won’t be successfully sued by environmental lawyers. Wouldn’t it be better to spend that money on management.

 That’s just a few snippets. Want your blood boil? Go to Jake’s blog idahofarmbureau.blogspot.com  and read the whole conversation. It’ll make you think more than twice about the quote Sun Valley crowd.