Demand Senators Protect 

the False Claims Act

Amendments to the False Claims Act (FCA) introduced by Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) advanced out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, October 28^th where the bill now awaits a vote by the full Senate. The amendments passed with 15 Yeas and 7 Nays.

The False Claims Act (FCA) is the government’s most powerful tool to protect taxpayers from fraud, patients from unsafe drugs, and reduce fraud in massive Medicaid and Medicare programs. Since 1986, the FCA has won back more than $60 billion taken from the public thanks to its qui tam provision. 

Senator Grassley’s False Claims Act Amendments of 2021 aim to reinvigorate the FCA after Big Pharma and corporate interests sought to undermine the success of the False Claims Act by spreading misinformation to kill the FCA and opposing these crucial amendments. The same corporate interests successfully blocked the addition of these amendments to the 2021 Infrastructure Bill to the detriment of whistleblowers and taxpayers alike. 

The amendments would protect whistleblowers from retaliation and blacklisting and prevent anti-whistleblower judges from creating higher burdens of proof for whistleblowers. If passed, the bill would close the loopholes stemming from harmful interpretations of SCOTUS’ decision in United Health Services v. United States ex rel. Escobar that permit federal contractors in violation of the law to escape justice, clarifying the standard in which the government waives its right to allege fraud in the case of continued payment on a potentially fraudulent contracts

However, with this win in the Senate Judiciary Committee, the fight now moves to the Senate floor. Senators must stand with whistleblowers and pass these amendments.

With massive amounts of fraud in Medicare and Medicaid programs totaling an estimated $68 billion annually, a weakened FCA will only empower and encourage fraudsters. We need whistleblowers as checks providing accountability and transparency that these programs will succeed, and the False Claims Act has proven to be the best tool in this fight.

The Senate must stand with taxpayers, frontline workers, and the whistleblowers who tirelessly oppose fraud. Please, write to your Senators today. Demand that Congress recognizes the importance of whistleblowers and swiftly passes the amendments to the False Claims Act.