Despite signs of a retrenchment in some of the traditional areas of white collar enforcement under the Trump administration, the U.S. Department of Justice’s (“DOJ”) enforcement of the civil False Claims Act (“FCA”) appears likely to proceed at a steady and aggressive pace amid a renewed focus on waste, fraud, and abuse and a recent jump in the number of new qui tam actions.

DOJ’s enforcement of the FCA (31 U.S.C. §§ 3729-3733)—the government’s primary civil remedy to combat fraud against the government—tends to be relatively stable from one administration to the next, and DOJ has typically recovered billions of dollars of settlements and judgments under the statute every year. There are several indications, however, that the FCA will play an even more central role in a wide variety of areas involving government programs and funds. In the first few months of the Trump administration, DOJ has announced more than 40 settlements with defendants resolving alleged FCA violations in cases alleging fraud involving defense contracting, pharmaceutical manufacturing, health insurance, pandemic relief funds, and customs. DOJ has also filed a brief in a pending case defending the constitutionality of the qui tam statute against attack, signaling DOJ’s support for whistleblower suits alleging fraud. Also, a surge in the number of qui tam actions filed in Fiscal Year 2024 (979)—the highest number in a single year—produced a fresh pipeline of new DOJ investigations,¹ which often take...

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