Opinion ID: 670647
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Effect of Bowen v. Massachusetts on Mootness of Appellant's Claim

Text: 16 Houston's chief argument in this appeal is that the Supreme Court's decision in Bowen v. Massachusetts, 487 U.S. 879, 108 S.Ct. 2722, 101 L.Ed.2d 749 (1988), and several decisions by this court interpreting Bowen make relief available in this case. We find no merit in this argument. Whatever changes Bowen may have wrought in the law, it certainly did not repeal the Appropriations Clause of the Constitution. 17 Bowen addressed the scope of relief available under APA section 702, 5 U.S.C. Sec. 702 (1988), 5 in light of the 1976 amendments to that section, which eliminated the defense of sovereign immunity in cases against the United States in which plaintiffs do not seek money damages. See Bowen, 487 U.S. at 892, 108 S.Ct. at 2731. In that case, Massachusetts argued that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had violated the Medicare statute by disallowing certain reimbursements. Massachusetts styled its suit as one seeking injunctive relief--an order that HHS pay the money it owed the state--rather than a claim seeking money damages. The Supreme Court agreed with this characterization, holding that the suit sought specific relief, in the form of an order to pay out the actual funds HHS owed to Massachusetts, rather than monetary compensation for an injury. Accordingly, the Court held that the suit was permissible under APA section 702. 18 Houston argues at length that its suit is distinguishable from our cases discussing lapsed or fully obligated appropriations, because the instant Complaint, like that in Bowen, seeks injunctive relief under the APA and therefore sounds in equity. Appellant urges that: The 1976 amendment to the APA is a waiver of sovereign immunity over grant-in-aid funding and other administrative decisions, and a grant of jurisdiction to the federal courts to review administrative decisions of federal agencies with authority to grant full relief. Brief for Appellant at 35 (emphasis added). Appellant's argument is beside the point. Nothing in Bowen or its progeny even obliquely addresses the question of expired or fully obligated appropriations, and it is indisputable that Bowen did not amend the Constitution. As the Supreme Court recently explained in a case that post-dates Bowen: 19 The Appropriations Clause of the Constitution, Art. I, Sec. 9, cl. 7, provides that: No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law. For the particular type of claim at issue here, a claim for money from the Federal Treasury, the Clause provides an explicit rule of decision. Money may be paid out only through an appropriation made by law; in other words, the payment of money from the Treasury must be authorized by a statute.... 20 [The Appropriations Clause] means simply that no money can be paid out of the Treasury unless it has been appropriated by an Act of Congress. 21 Office of Personnel Management v. Richmond, 496 U.S. 414, 424, 110 S.Ct. 2465, 2471, 110 L.Ed.2d 387 (1990) (internal quotation omitted). When the relevant appropriation has lapsed or been fully obligated, as in this case, the federal courts are without authority to provide monetary relief. Even accepting, arguendo, appellant's interpretation of Bowen, Houston simply cannot overcome this elementary constitutional stumbling block. 22 Houston also suggests that HUD does in fact have funds available from sources other than the 1986 appropriation from which it could pay the monies the city seeks. For example, appellant points to approximately $12 million that HUD allegedly has recouped from other grantees, monies which Houston argues are no-year funds that are not reserved for use in any particular year or for particular projects. This argument, however, runs afoul of APA section 702's fundamental requirement that a plaintiff seek relief other than money damages. Section 702 permits monetary awards only when, as in Bowen, such an award constitutes specific relief--that is, when a court orders a defendant to pay a sum owed out of a specific res. See generally Hubbard v. EPA, 982 F.2d 531 (D.C.Cir.1992) (en banc) (holding that back pay does not constitute specific relief available under APA section 702). An award of monetary relief from any source of funds other than the 1986 CDBG appropriation would constitute money damages rather than specific relief, and so would not be authorized by APA section 702. 23