On July 22, a bipartisan group of Senators, led by Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), introduced a bill to amend the False Claims Act (“FCA”). According to Senator Grassley’s press release, the proposed False Claims Amendments Act of 2021 (the “Bill”) seeks to “clarif[y] the current law following confusion and misinterpretation of the Supreme Court decision in United Health Services v. United States ex rel. Escobar . . . .”
The Bill’s amendments focus on 1) reigning in Government dismissals of qui tam actions; 2) shifting the costs of discovery from the Government in non-intervened cases; and 3) shifting the burden of proof in establishing the materiality standard under the FCA. In Senator Grassley’s summary of the Bill, he states, “[t]he False Claims Act is the government’s most powerful tool in deterring fraud and protecting taxpayer dollars” and that the “changes [to the FCA] are needed to correct misinterpretations of the Supreme Court decision and ensure that the government has the tools needed to recover the billions of dollars lost annually to fraud.” The proposed amendments, however, would do little to further the FCA’s legitimate purpose of protecting the public fisc. Indeed, in several respects, they are likely to further waste taxpayer dollars.
Source:
- Nichols Liu LLP: Tempest in a Teapot?: The False Claims Amendments Act of 2021
