Four decades ago, on Oct. 27, 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed into law my bipartisan updates to the False Claims Act. At the time, I never imagined this sharpened Civil War-era tool would recoup more than $85 billion - and deter untold billions more - from fraudsters seeking to harvest cash from the U.S. Treasury. The law has grown more effective over time. Last fiscal year marked the largest single-year recovery to date, exceeding $6.8 billion and most of that is thanks to patriotic whistleblowers.

President Abraham Lincoln signed the original False Claims Act to combat government contractors bilking the Union Army, fleecing taxpayers and undermining efforts to secure victory in the American Civil War. In just one example, a Union officer purchased 1,000 mules at $119 apiece, but the animals were unfit for service because some were blind and diseased. Lincoln's law incentivized citizens to step up in the fight against fraud by empowering whistleblowers to serve as relators on behalf of the government and file lawsuits, entitling them to receive half of the recovered damages and civil fines. This legal framework originated during the Middle Ages when society relied on ordinary folk to uphold law and order. An abbreviated term for a Latin phrase that means "he who brings an action for the king as well as himself" - qui tam - encourages private citizens with financial incentives to report wrongdoing.

Whistleblowers' valued role in our government dates back well over...

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