Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) reintroduced legislation (S.458) on February 24 to expand the scope of the Federal False Claims Act (FCA). The legislation is cosponsored by the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.).
Current law authorizes the Attorney General to recover treble damages and fines from anyone who submits or causes someone else to submit a false claim for payment to the Government. AGC is greatly concerned this legislation will virtually rewrite the intent and spirit of the Act. It will expand the universe of claims – many of which would not involve truly false claims nor involve any loss to the Federal Treasury – and will complicate management of government programs, allow opportunistic plaintiffs to recover funds that should go to the Treasury, and impose huge burdens on non-profits, state and local governments and small businesses.
AGC is working with its coalition partners in the business community to oppose passage of this legislation, which will raise companies' cost of doing business, increase the government's cost of contracts, discourage large and small businesses from doing business with the government and cause irreparable damage to the government contracting process.
For more information, contact Marco Giamberardino at (703) 837-5325 or giamberm@agc.org.
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