Inflation-Based Adjustments in Federal Civil Monetary Penalties

Abstract

This Article will examine the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act in detail. A 2003 report by the United States General Accounting Office identified the difficulties that federal agencies had encountered in their implementation of the Inflation Adjustment Act. This Article extends the analysis offered by the 2003 GAO report in multiple ways. This Article comprehensively reviews the legislative history of the Act so that it can explain the Act’s economic problems as the consequence of Congress’s extensive but ultimately flawed drafting process. Through its Mathematical Appendix and its more contextualized illustrations, this Article supplies both formal and narrative explanations of the Act’s shortcomings. This Article ultimately proposes concrete legislative solutions to each of the statutory flaws that it identifies.