Fraud Enforcement And Recovery Act Of 2009

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, I heard the kind remarks of the Senator from Vermont. I thank him for those remarks about this Senator and I thank him for his cooperation on this bill, including some things I am very much interested in, but also the basis of the legislation that he proposed, and I support it as enthusiastically as I do the rest of the bill. I thank the Senator from Vermont.

I am here, obviously, to speak in support of the Fraud Enforcement Recovery Act which has been so thoroughly discussed by our distinguished chairman of the Judiciary Committee. As the lead Republican cosponsor of this timely antifraud legislation, I believe it is a very important component--a very important component--to help get both the financial and the housing markets back on track. The fraud enforcement tools and resources provided in this bill are very necessary. They will ensure that the taxpayers' dollars that have been expended to shore up bank and financial institutions and corporations and Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and others aren't lost to fraud, waste, and abuse.

This bill sends a very clear message to would-be bad actors that their conduct will have repercussions from here on out. It will also make sure money lost to fraud can be recovered through the False Claims Act. Most importantly, this bill will help show the American people we are doing something to try and prevent future fraud and recover moneys lost to that fraud and that abuse. That is why I am voting for cloture on this bill.

Early in the process of bringing this bill to the floor, I explained to the Democratic leadership that I wanted an open process for amendments to be considered on this bill before I supported the cloture that we will be voting on. The leadership honored that and we had a number of amendments filed on this bill. We have spent a week and have debated and disposed of a number of amendments to the bill. We have some other amendments that remain outstanding that are good amendments and should be debated on a housing or banking bill that is coming up in the very near future. It is now time to pass this bill. Our law enforcement officials need these tools and they need these resources and they need them now. That is why I am going to vote for cloture on this bill.

Taxpayers have been asked to shoulder an enormous burden at this time of economic crisis created by a credit crisis. They have shouldered an enormous burden, be it the bailout of financial institutions, an economic stimulus bill that handed out $1 trillion, and more recently the Omnibus appropriations bill loaded full of Government spending. To my colleagues: Whether you agree with these expenditures, we simply cannot allow these funds to be unprotected from fraud, waste, and abuse.

This legislation ensures that our law enforcement officials and our prosecutors have the tools necessary to enforce our laws and the resources to hunt down the bad actors. It makes revisions to our criminal fraud laws to ensure that complex financial and mortgage crimes aren't outside the scope of Federal jurisdiction in the future. It also makes necessary corrections to our antimoney laundering laws to ensure that a recent Supreme Court decision doesn't limit the ability of our Department of Justice to go after criminals who launder their ill-gotten funds.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly from the standpoint of this Senator, the bill amends the civil False Claims Act to ensure that taxpayers' money lost to fraud, waste, and abuse can, in fact, be recovered and particularly when that recovery is associated with a patriotic work of whistleblowers who make that known. Back in 1986, I authored major revisions to the False Claims Act and did that so we could fight fraud, particularly against Government then more so than now, by defense contractors. Now it seems to be Medicare and the health care industry. Since those revisions were signed into law in 1986 by President Reagan, the False Claims Act has recovered over $22 billion of taxpayer money.

This powerful law allows citizen taxpayers to act as private attorneys general by going to court on behalf of our Government when they know of fraud against the Government. These qui tam whistleblowers are the heart and soul of the False Claims Act. They uncover fraud from the inside, bringing schemes to light so taxpayers are not taken for a ride. However, in recent years, litigation fueled by powerful Government defense and health care contractors has created legal loopholes that threaten the application of this powerful tool that has brought in billions of dollars. This legislation fixes this, thus ensuring that no fraud can go unpunished by simply navigating through the legal loopholes.

This bill will help deter potential defrauders from attempting to scam the Government and the taxpayers. In addition, this legislation will help instill confidence back into the housing and financial markets. I hope my colleagues will join me by voting for cloture on this bill to help make sure these taxpayer dollars are protected.

I yield the floor.

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