[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1353 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1353

To ensure appropriate judicial review of Federal Government actions by 
amending the prohibition on the exercise of jurisdiction by the United 
   States Court of Federal Claims of certain claims pending in other 
                                courts.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 14, 2015

    Mr. Wicker (for himself, Mr. Leahy, Mr. Cornyn, and Mr. Tester) 
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 
                       Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To ensure appropriate judicial review of Federal Government actions by 
amending the prohibition on the exercise of jurisdiction by the United 
   States Court of Federal Claims of certain claims pending in other 
                                courts.

    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 ``Ensuring Access to Justice for 
Claims Against the United States Act''.

SEC. 2. JURISDICTION OF UNITED STATES COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS.

    (a) Amendments to Title 28, United States Code.--
            (1) In general.--Section 1500 of title 28, United States 
        Code, is amended to read as follows:
``Sec. 1500. Presumption of stay
    ``(a) Definitions.--In this section--
            ``(1) the term `court' means any of the courts described in 
        section 610; and
            ``(2) the term `Court of Federal Claims' means the United 
        States Court of Federal Claims.
    ``(b) Presumption of Stay.--Except as provided in subsection (d), 
if a civil action is pending in, or on appeal from, the Court of 
Federal Claims, and the plaintiff or assignee of the plaintiff also has 
pending in any other court a civil action that includes a claim against 
the United States or an agency or officer of the United States arising 
from substantially the same set of operative facts, the court presiding 
over the action that was filed later shall stay the action, in whole or 
in part, until the action that was filed first is no longer pending.
    ``(c) Determining First-Filed Action.--
            ``(1) Appeals.--For purposes of subsection (b), the date of 
        filing for a civil action that is pending on appeal from the 
        Court of Federal Claims is the date on which the action was 
        filed in the Court of Federal Claims.
            ``(2) Actions or appeals filed on same day.--For purposes 
        of subsection (b), if the actions described in subsection (b) 
        were filed on the same day, without regard to the time of day, 
        the action that is pending in, or on appeal from, the Court of 
        Federal Claims shall be treated as having been filed first.
    ``(d) Exceptions.--The requirement to stay an action under 
subsection (b) shall not apply if--
            ``(1) the parties in each of the actions that include a 
        claim based on substantially the same set of operative facts 
        otherwise agree; or
            ``(2) in exceptional circumstances the court finds, upon 
        the motion of any party, that termination or modification of 
        the stay is necessary to preserve material evidence or to 
        prevent irreparable prejudice to that party.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit shall have 
jurisdiction of an appeal from an interlocutory order terminating or 
modifying a stay pursuant to paragraph (2).''.
            (2) Technical and conforming amendment.--The table of 
        sections for chapter 91 of title 28, United States Code, is 
        amended by striking the item relating to section 1500 and 
        inserting the following:

``1500. Presumption of stay.''.
    (b) Applicability.--
            (1) In general.--Section 1500 of title 28, United States 
        Code, as amended by subsection (a), shall apply to any action 
        pending on, or filed on or after, the date of the enactment of 
        this Act, but does not apply in a case in which the action 
        filed later (as determined in accordance with such section, as 
        so amended) is pending (on such date of enactment) in a court 
        of appeals of the United States or the Supreme Court of the 
        United States, or in a case in which a judgment has been 
        entered as of such date of enactment but for which the time to 
        file an appeal has not expired.
            (2) Previous jurisdictional bar.--Any claim in an action 
        pending on the date of the enactment of this Act either in a 
        court of appeals of the United States or the Supreme Court of 
        the United States, or for which the time to file an appeal has 
        not expired, shall not be subject to the jurisdictional bar 
        under section 1500 of title 28, United States Code, as in 
        effect on the day before the date of the enactment of this Act.
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