WASHINGTON – Legislation to reign in courts that have been misinterpreting the False Claims Amendments Act first authored in 1986 by Senator Chuck Grassley has passed the Senate Judiciary Committee. The bill now will be sent to be debated in the full Senate.
Grassley’s new legislation, The False Claims Act Correction Act, was introduced with the support of the Judiciary Committee chairman and ranking member, as well as Senator Dick Durbin, the lead cosponsor.
“The courts have twisted and over analyzed a law that is designed to do one thing, protect the federal treasury from those seeking to commit fraud against the government,” Grassley said. “The impact of these decisions could not be further from what we intended in 1986 when we empowered qui tam relators to come forward, report fraud and work with the Government to stop it. Instead, these decisions, in some instances, create a disincentive to bring a claim forward.”
Grassley said he received little feedback from opponents of the legislation until this week. He noted that the bill was introduced more than five months ago and was updated more than four weeks ago.
“Our doors have always been open to the opponents of the bill. I’m shocked by how little input we had up until the last week. This tells me that the only incentive to get people to the table for discussions is to keep this bill moving forward,” Grassley said. “I look forward to an open dialogue with them in the upcoming weeks before the bill is considered by the full Senate.”
Grassley and Representative Howard Berman updated the federal False Claims Act in 1986 to allow individual citizens to act on behalf of the government as private Attorneys General to recover taxpayer dollars. President Ronald Reagan signed these amendments into law, and as a result, the False Claims Act has returned more than $20 billion of taxpayer money to the federal treasury, and deterred countless billions that would otherwise be lost to fraud. Grassley’s changes to the law have become the federal government’s premier tool for recovering dollars lost to fraud, including health care fraud.
“This legislation is necessary to ensure that the False Claims Act is available for the next 20 years and is not limited by unintended interpretations of federal courts that are contrary to the spirit and intent of the 1986 amendments. President Lincoln had the foresight to push for this law in 1863, President Reagan signed the 1986 amendments to resurrect the law, and today we can make sure the False Claims Act continues to protect taxpayer dollars for future generations,” Grassley said.