Democratic WA Rep. frustrated with own party for killing 'Whistleblower Protection Bill,' defending 'Keeping Families Together Act'
Washington State Rep. David Hackney, a Democrat, voiced frustration that his sponsored bill, House Bill 2585, failed to receive a floor vote in the Democrat-majority chambers of the state legislature, causing it to die in committee.
House Bill 2585 would have extended whistleblower protections and financial incentives for reporting fraud against the state to all government spending.
On “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio, Hackney said he doesn’t understand why a fellow Democrat, the committee chair, declined to bring the bill to a vote.
“That bill was never voted out of committee, and so it died in committee. I don’t know. It wasn’t voted down. It never had a vote,” Hackney said. “Those schedules are done by the committee chairperson. Why she didn’t schedule it for a vote, I think you’d have to ask her.”
Washington’s existing Medicaid False Claims Act, passed in 2012, allows whistleblowers who help recover fraudulent claims to receive 15% to 30% of the money recovered; Hackney’s bill would expand that model statewide.
Hackney said 33 other states already apply a False Claims Act to all government spending, not just health care programs, and pushed back on the idea that expanding whistleblower protections would invite abuse.
“If you make a frivolous claim, you don’t get anything, because there’s not going to be any fraud, there’s no...
Democratic WA Rep. frustrated with own party for killing 'Whistleblower Protection Bill,' defending 'Keeping Families Together Act' Washington State Rep. David Hackney, a Democrat, voiced frustrat...