II 

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. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Ensuring Access to 

5 Justice for Claims Against the United States Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. JURISDICTION OF UNITED STATES COURT OF FED2 ERAL CLAIMS. 

3 (a) AMENDMENTS TO TITLE 28, UNITED STATES

4 CODE.— 

5 (1) IN GENERAL.—Section 1500 of title 28, 

6 United States Code, is amended to read as follows: 

7 ‘‘§ 1500. Presumption of stay 

8 ‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section— 

9 ‘‘(1) the term ‘court’ means any of the courts 

10 described in section 610; and 

11 ‘‘(2) the term ‘Court of Federal Claims’ means 

12 the United States Court of Federal Claims. 

13 ‘‘(b) PRESUMPTION OF STAY.—Except as provided in 

14 subsection (d), if a civil action is pending in, or on appeal 

15 from, the Court of Federal Claims, and the plaintiff or 

16 assignee of the plaintiff also has pending in any other 

17 court a civil action that includes a claim against the 

18 United States or an agency or officer of the United States 

19 arising from substantially the same set of operative facts, 

20 the court presiding over the action that was filed later 

21 shall stay the action, in whole or in part, until the action 

22 that was filed first is no longer pending. 

23 ‘‘(c) DETERMINING FIRST-FILED ACTION.— 

24 ‘‘(1) APPEALS.—For purposes of subsection 

25 (b), the date of filing for a civil action that is pend26 ing on appeal from the Court of Federal Claims is 


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1 the date on which the action was filed in the Court 

2 of Federal Claims. 

3 ‘‘(2) ACTIONS OR APPEALS FILED ON SAME

4 DAY.—For purposes of subsection (b), if the actions 

5 described in subsection (b) were filed on the same 

6 day, without regard to the time of day, the action 

7 that is pending in, or on appeal from, the Court of 

8 Federal Claims shall be treated as having been filed 

9 first. 

10 ‘‘(d) EXCEPTIONS.—The requirement to stay an ac11 tion under subsection (b) shall not apply if— 

12 ‘‘(1) the parties in each of the actions that in13 clude a claim based on substantially the same set of 

14 operative facts otherwise agree; or 

15 ‘‘(2) in exceptional circumstances the court 

16 finds, upon the motion of any party, that termi17 nation or modification of the stay is necessary to 

18 preserve material evidence or to prevent irreparable 

19 prejudice to that party. 

20 The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Cir21 cuit shall have jurisdiction of an appeal from an interlocu22 tory order terminating or modifying a stay pursuant to 

23 paragraph (2).’’. 

24 (2) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMEND25 MENT.—The table of sections for chapter 91 of title 


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1 28, United States Code, is amended by striking the 

2 item relating to section 1500 and inserting the fol3 lowing: 

‘‘1500. Presumption of stay.’’. 

4 (b) APPLICABILITY.— 

5 (1) IN GENERAL.—Section 1500 of title 28, 

6 United States Code, as amended by subsection (a), 

7 shall apply to any action pending on, or filed on or 

8 after, the date of the enactment of this Act, but does 

9 not apply in a case in which the action filed later (as 

10 determined in accordance with such section, as so 

11 amended) is pending (on such date of enactment) in 

12 a court of appeals of the United States or the Su13 preme Court of the United States, or in a case in 

14 which a judgment has been entered as of such date 

15 of enactment but for which the time to file an appeal 

16 has not expired. 

17 (2) PREVIOUS JURISDICTIONAL BAR.—Any 

18 claim in an action pending on the date of the enact19 ment of this Act either in a court of appeals of the 

20 United States or the Supreme Court of the United 

21 States, or for which the time to file an appeal has 

22 not expired, shall not be subject to the jurisdictional 

23 bar under section 1500 of title 28, United States 


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1 Code, as in effect on the day before the date of the 

2 enactment of this Act. 

Æ 


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