Senator Chuck Grassley today made the following statement after the House Judiciary Committee Constitution and Civil Justice Subcommittee held a hearing on the False Claims Act. Grassley is the author of the 1986 qui tam amendments to the False Claims Act which empower private citizens who have information about fraudulent activity by government contractors to bring wrongdoing forward and sue in the name of the government.
Multiple witnesses in the hearing referred to a report put together by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce which proposes a program in which companies which are certified as having “gold-standard compliance programs” be allowed different treatment under the False Claims Act, subverting its requirements and adding harmful new requirements for whistleblowers. Grassley’s full testimony can be found here.
Here’s Grassley’s react.
“I’ve long advocated companies developing strong internal compliance programs. However, having one isn’t a reason to receive a ‘get out of jail free’ pass. I’m skeptical that companies will self-report violations, and certification of a compliance program won’t turn up the cold hard facts on whether they do or don’t self-report. That’s why the False Claims Act relies on whistleblowers, and no other law has proven as effective at recovering taxpayer dollars that would otherwise be lost. Before the 1986 amendments which incentivized whistleblowers, $40 million was being recovered each year. At that rate, it would have recovered only $1 billion in the past 25 years. Now, thanks to courageous whistleblowers who know where the skeletons are buried, the law has recovered $42 billion since 1986.”
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