During their Senate confirmation hearings, both Pam Bondi, nominee for Attorney General, and Scott Bessent, nominee for Treasury secretary, affirmed their support for whistleblowers in response to questions from Senator Chuck Grassley.
During Bondi’s confirmation hearing on January 15, Senate Grassley asked if she believed that the False Claims Act is constitutional and if she would commit to continuing the Department of Justice’s defense of its constitutionality. Grassley spoke about how, thanks in large part to “patriotic whistleblowers,” the False Claims Act has resulted in over $78 billion in collections for the government since 1986.
“I would defend the constitutionality of course of the False Claims Act,” Bondi stated. “The False Claims Act is so important, especially by what you said with whistleblowers.”
The constitutionality of the False Claims Act’s qui tam provisions have faced challenges recently. In September, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida ruled that the qui tam provisions are unconstitutional because they violate the Appointments Clause of Article II. The court ruled that by filing a qui tam lawsuit alleging Medicare fraud, whistleblower Clarissa Zafirov was granted “core executive power” without any “proper appointment under the Constitution.”
The U.S. government is urging the Eleventh Circuit to reverse the district judge’s “outlier ruling,” noting in a brief that “...
These rackets are operated by certain people who prepare income tax returns and intermediaries who file them, said an official statement from the CBDT. New Delhi: The Income Tax department has laun...