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The Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act is Amended to Match the Federal False Claims Act!


Last night, the both Houses of the Virginia General Assembly passed the most important piece of legislation in the 2011 legislative session–that is, the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act was updated and amended to match the Federal False Claims Act!  The bill is SB1262, which was sponsored in the House by Del. Greg Habeeb and in the Senate by Sen. Jill Vogel.

I have been reluctant to blog about these amendments as they wound their way through both houses because we faced, for a short time, a potential disaster.  I didn’t want any of the usual suspects who lobby against false claims act legislation to smell blood in the water… 

In a nutshell, here is what happened:  the amendments to the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers contained in SB1262 were accidentally amended in the Senate with potentially disastrous results, and became known as “SB1262E.” 

I don’t blame anyone in the Senate, of course, because the error occurred through the sort of legislative oversights that happen in these rushed “short-sessions” of the legislature.  Still, the Senate amendments created several problems with the statute. In a worst case scenario, SB1262E could have been read as turning the VFATA into a general fraud statute.  In a best case scenario, SB1262E made the statute inconsistent on its face.

In the House of Delegates, however, Del. Greg Habeeb did a masterful job of re-amending SB1262 back into its original form and then steering the bill through the House of Delegates with only minor problems.  The minor problem was this:   exactly 14 Delegates voted against Del. Habeeb’s amendments to SB1262. 

So each house of the GA passed different versions of the legislation, and if an agreement had not been reached last night reconciling the two versions, SB1262 and SB1262E would have wound up “in conference.”    

But last night the Senate–in an inspiring act of bipartisan cooperation–agreed to re-amend the bill to its original form. 

My hat is off to all those in the GA who worked so hard on this legislation, but thanks are especially owed to Del. Greg Habeeb, who took this bull by the horns–and in his first legislative session no less.  That young man (I can call him a “young man” because he is almost three years younger than I am) is really going places folks, mark my words!

Of course, thanks is owed to state Sen. Jill Vogel and the other 35 state Senators who voted for fiscal responsibility, but I would like to especially thank Sen. Chap Petersen, who took the time to meet with Del. Habeeb and I a few weeks ago about the discrepancy between SB1262 and SB1262E. 
 
So, Virginia becomes one of only two states to my knowledge who have updated and amended their state False Claims Act to match the new federal statute!  (Illinois is the other state, I believe). 

I blogged previously about the importance of these amendments, which will become law on July 1, 2011, but there will be more to come.  Now, I am happy to say, it will be necessary for me to update and put together a second edition of my ebook  on the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act…