Tomorrow, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on a much-needed bill that will restore to its intended effectiveness the government’s primary law for combating fraud.
Our whistleblower lawyer blog has written previously about the “False Claims Act Correction Act.” The Act is one of the most significant developments in whistleblower law since the 1986 amendments that created the modern False Claims Act.
This is a bipartisan bill designed to restore the government’s “primary” tool for fighting fraud against taxpayers, the False Claims Act, to its intended usefulness. Several court decisions have weakened the False Claims Act and inhibited its effectiveness in fighting fraud.
The publication Legal Times contacted me last week to discuss the bill’s importance. In its February 25, 2008 issue, Legal Times (http://www.law.com/jsp/dc/PubArticleDC.jsp?id=1203508156014&hub=TopStories) includes only one comment from a “whistleblower” lawyer, my comment that:
“‘This would remove a series of technicalities for those who get away with stealing taxpayer funds,” says Michael Sullivan, a plaintiffs lawyer at Atlanta’s Finch McCranie.”
What was edited out is that those who have succeeded in defrauding the public now often take advantage of a series of “technical” defenses that allow them to escape accountability–defenses that were never intended by Congress in enacting the current version of the False Claims Act.
No contractor who has not committed fraud will have any concerns about the new bill.
We will continue to report on the bill’s progress!