[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2293 Introduced in House (IH)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2293

 To eliminate attorney fee awards and limit relief available in suits 
                    against certain public entities.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 30, 1997

 Mr. Taylor of North Carolina introduced the following bill; which was 
     referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To eliminate attorney fee awards and limit relief available in suits 
                    against certain public entities.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Environmental Litigation Abuse 
Prevention Act of 1997''.

SEC. 2. LIMITATION ON AWARD.

    Section 505(d) of the Federal Water Pollution Prevention and 
Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1365(d)) is amended--
            (1) by adding ``(1)'' before ``The court, in''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
    ``(2)(A) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), in issuing any final order 
in any action brought pursuant to this section, the court shall not 
award costs of litigation (including any attorney fees or expert 
witness fees) against any municipality.
    ``(B) For the purposes of this paragraph, the term `municipality' 
includes the District of Columbia.''.

SEC. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    The amendments made by this Act shall apply to any proceeding in 
which a final decree has not been entered.
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