FEES Act of 2026

Key Points

• The bill rewrites who can get their attorney's fees paid back after winning a lawsuit against a federal agency, requiring the person to have a direct financial stake in the case rather than a general public interest.
• This change would likely block many environmental, civil rights, and advocacy organizations from recovering legal costs when they sue agencies over regulations or policies, since they usually don't have a personal financial interest in the outcome.
• Fee awards are capped at $200,000 per case and limited to 3 cases per calendar year for any one person or group, with exceptions for class actions and cases involving the Social Security Administration or Department of Veterans Affairs.
• The bill bans the government from paying attorney's fees in any settlement or consent decree that results in a new regulation or guidance document, targeting what critics call 'sue and settle' deals between agencies and advocacy groups.
• Five years after the law passes, the Interior Department must convene a scientific panel to study how these litigation changes affected the health of federal forests and rangelands, including wildfire risk and water quality.