President-elect Trump selects key government officials
As regular readers know, this blog is completely non-partisan and will support any elected official who supports vigorous enforcement of the federal False Claims Act.
As President-elect Donald Trump begins naming the key government officials who will guide his administration, I figured it was worth a look to see how some of the folks feel about qui tam/false claims cases. As I have said before, false claims laws enjoy bipartisan support; there are also a small number of people in both parties who would like to see the FCA gutted. While it may not be possible to determine exactly how any one nominee will handle FCA matters, here is what we know about the nominees for two of the most important positions in government for false claims act enforcement.
Attorney General Nominee Jeff Sessions
Trump has identified Sen. Jeff Sessions as his nominee for Attorney General. This is, of course, a very important post for FCA enforcement. The vast majority of the public information available about Senator Sessions concerns his supposed hard-line stance on deporting illegal aliens who have committed crimes.
A bit more digging however reveals someone who should be quite good on FCA-issues. For example, Sessions is a former United States Attorney, which means that FCA enforcement would have fallen in his bailiwick. He is also a former Attorney General for the state of Alabama. He also voted in favor of the FERA amendments (which strengthened the federal FCA).
As regular readers also know, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) has been a stalwart proponent of the federal False Claims Act as well as state false claims acts. So I was happy to read that Sen. Grassley meet with Jeff Sessions this week and discussed the importance of the federal FCA with him.
Only time will tell how Sen. Sessions will handle federal False claims act enforcement as AG…
Congressman Tom Price (R-GA) selected to head Health and Human Services
A second government position that will be critical to qui tam/FCA enforcement is that of HHS secretary. Representative Tom Price (R-GA) has gotten the nod for this position. We don’t know too much about how Rep. Price feels about FCA legislation — he is a doctor, and not a lawyer — but we do know that he has railed against fraud, waste and abuse in government programs, including health care programs.
Stay tuned for more, dear readers…
