Continuing his long and storied history of pushing for stronger enforcement of the False Claims Act (FCA), Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) recently led a bipartisan group of senators in introducing the False Claims Amendments Act of 2023 (Act). In a July 25, 2023, press release explaining the intent of the Act, Grassley criticized "flawed court interpretations [that] have created loopholes for [defendants] to avoid accountability" and claimed that the "bipartisan bill clarifies our original intent to hold those accountable when they bilk the taxpayer."
His dig at judicial interpretation of the FCA was aimed squarely at a seminal U.S. Supreme Court decision on the FCA from 2016. That case delineated the test federal courts must apply to determine whether a given regulatory violation was material to the government's payment decision and, thus, actionable under the FCA. Since 2016, courts across the country have tackled the murky confines of materiality as it relates to the FCA, creating what appear to be inconsistent tests for this central element of proving FCA liability. Not happy with the tone and tenor of these decisions, Grassley has sought a legislative redirection for the FCA's materiality standard.
As part of the test laid out by the Supreme Court, "if the Government pays a particular claim in full despite its actual knowledge that certain requirements were violated, that is very strong evidence that those requirements are not material." The Act would practically...
As he said he would on Sunday morning, FBI Director Kash Patel filed a defamation case against The Atlantic and reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick this morning over a story that characterizes him as an inc...