WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and author of legislation that significantly strengthened the False Claims Act (FCA), is urging Attorney General Pam Bondi to immediately halt pending FCA qui tam case dismissals issued under the Biden-Harris administration and conduct a full review to ensure decisions were made appropriately and in accordance with the facts and law. According to the DOJ, in 2024 qui tam FCA cases yielded the lion’s share of recoveries, recouping $2.4 billion out of the $2.9 billion recovered.
“The False Claims Act (FCA) is our Nation’s greatest tool to fight and deter government fraud and return money to the taxpayers. A critical part of the FCA is its qui tam provision, which allows whistleblowers who typically have inside knowledge of fraudulent conduct to sue on the government’s behalf,” Grassley wrote.
Last year, Grassley wrote two letters to the Biden-Harris DOJ requesting information on the Department’s standards for dismissing FCA qui tam cases in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling that DOJ may dismiss at any point during the litigation. Grassley raised concerns that the DOJ will be emboldened to dismiss qui tam cases, even years into the process and for reasons unrelated to the merits, after initially declining to intervene. The Biden-Harris DOJ failed to respond to either letter.
“The Biden-Harris Justice Department’s failure to provide transparency into the process and standards it used to dismiss qui tam cases after initially declining to intervene raises questions with respect to whether fraudsters were potentially let off the hook at significant cost to the taxpayers,” Grassley continued.
In her response to Grassley’s questions for the record, AG Bondi confirmed that she “will ensure the Department makes [FCA] dismissal decisions only as appropriate and in accordance with the relevant facts and law.” Grassley cited Bondi’s response in his letter and urged the DOJ to withdraw motions that do not align with the facts and the law.
Text of Grassley’s letter to Attorney General Bondi follows:
February 7, 2025
VIA ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION
The Honorable Pamela J. Bondi
Attorney General
Department of Justice
Dear Attorney General Bondi:
The False Claims Act (FCA) is our Nation’s greatest tool to fight and deter government fraud and return money to the taxpayers. A critical part of the FCA is its qui tam provision which allows whistleblowers, who typically have inside knowledge of fraudulent conduct, to sue on the government’s behalf.[1] Since the updates I authored to the qui tam provision were enacted into law, the FCA has recovered over $78 billion in taxpayer dollars and saved billions more by deterring would be fraudsters.[2] According to Justice Department statistics, in 2024 FCA cases recovered more than $2.9 billion lost to fraud.[3] Of that $2.9 billion, over $2.4 billion came from qui tam cases.[4]
On March 6 and May 9, 2024, I wrote to the Biden-Harris Justice Department requesting information and statistics concerning the Department’s dismissal of FCA qui tam cases after the Supreme Court’s June 16, 2023, decision in United States Ex Rel. Polansky v. Executive Health Resources, Inc., et al.[5] In that case, the Supreme Court ruled that the Justice Department may dismiss a qui tam case at any point, so long as they first intervene.[6] I am concerned that the Justice Department, after initially declining to intervene in a case, will now be emboldened to intervene at any point in litigation – even years into litigation – and dismiss FCA cases for reasons unrelated to the merits.[7] My March and May letters were similar to my September 4, 2019, letter to then-Attorney General Barr requesting information about the Justice Department’s implementation of their new FCA dismissal policy, known as the “Granston Memorandum,” and its vague instructions that could potentially lead to a greater number of qui tam cases being dismissed for reasons unrelated to their merits.[8] On December 19, 2019, then-Attorney General Barr responded to my letter and provided the list of cases I requested where the government moved to dismiss.[9] However, the Biden-Harris Justice Department failed to respond to both of my letters.
The Biden-Harris Justice Department’s failure to provide transparency into the process and standards it used to dismiss qui tam cases after initially declining to intervene raises questions with respect to whether fraudsters were potentially let off the hook at significant cost to the taxpayers. The process and standards the Biden-Harris administration used in determining whether to intervene and dismiss FCA cases post-Polansky may not align with the priorities of the current administration.
In your response to my questions for the record about FCA dismissals, you stated “I will c decisions only as appropriate and in accordance with the relevant facts and law.”[10] Accordingly, I strongly urge you to immediately halt all pending dismissals and conduct a review of all qui tam cases from June 2023 to the present with pending Biden-Harris Justice Department motions to dismiss to ensure that the decisions were made “only as appropriate and in accordance with the relevant facts and law.” Should these motions to dismiss not align with the facts and the law, the Justice Department must withdraw them. In addition, I request that you provide responses to my March 6 and May 9 letters, which the Biden-Harris Justice Department failed to answer, which I’ve enclosed along with copies of my September 2019 letter to Attorney General Barr and his response.
Thank you for your prompt review and responses. If you have any questions, please contact Brian Randolph on my Committee staff at (202) 224-7708.
Sincerely,
Charles E. Grassley
Chairman
Committee on the Judiciary
[1] 31 U.S.C. § 3730(c).
[2] Department of Justice, False Claims Act Settlements and Judgments Exceed $2.9B in Fiscal Year 2024, Press Release (Jan. 15, 2025) https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/false-claims-act-settlements-and-judgments-exceed-29b-fiscal-year-2024.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] United States, ex rel. Polansky v. Exec. Health Res., Inc., 599 U.S. 419, 143 S. Ct. 1720, 216 L. Ed. 2d 370 (2023) https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/21-1052_fd9g.pdf.
[6] Id.
[7] G. Norman Acker III, John H. Lawrence, Michael H. Phillips, Supreme Court Affirms Government's Broad Dismissal Authority In False Claims Act Suits, US Health Care and FDA Alert (Jul. 5, 2023) https://www.klgates.com/Supreme-Court-Affirms-Governments-Broad-Dismissal-Authority-in-False-Claims-Act-Suits-7-5-2023; see also Tirzah S. Lollar and Megan Pieper, DOJ Flexes Its Post-Polansky (c)(2)(A) Muscles and Moves To Dismiss Qui Tam Midway Through Discovery, Qui Notes: Unlocking the False Claims Act (Mar. 19, 2024) https://www.arnoldporter.com/en/perspectives/blogs/fca-qui-notes/posts/2024/03/doj-flexes-post-polansky-muscles; Brenna E. Jenny and Matt Bergs, First Court of Appeals to Apply Polansky Upholds DOJ’s Dismissal, FCA Blog (Aug. 8, 2024) https://fcablog.sidley.com/2023/08/08/first-court-of-appeals-to-apply-polansky-upholds-dojs-dismissal/; Paula Ramer and Alejandra C. Uria, Another One Bites the Dust: The Government Secures Its Third Federal Qui Tam Dismissal Under Its Broad (c)(2)(A) Authority Since Polansky, Qui Notes: Unlocking the False Claims Act (Apr. 23, 2024) https://www.arnoldporter.com/en/perspectives/blogs/fca-qui-notes/posts/2024/04/another-one-bites-the-dust.
[8] Letter from Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles E. Grassley to Attorney Barr re: Granston Memo, (Sep. 4, 2019) https://www.grassley.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2019-09-04%20CEG%20to%20DOJ%20(FCA%20dismissals).pdf.
[9] Letter from the Justice Department to Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles E. Grassley re: Granston Memo, (Dec. 19, 2019) https://www.arnoldporter.com/en/-/media/files/perspectives/publications/2020/01/doj-response-to-senator-grassley.pdf.
[10] On file with Committee staff.