During President Barack Obama’s tenure, False Claims Act (FCA) enforcement increased dramatically, as it has under every president since Ronald Reagan. Practitioners have nevertheless wondered whether we can expect a similarly robust FCA agenda from President Donald Trump. The recent confirmation of Sen. Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, a former prosecutor and conservative lawmaker, as attorney general may suggest a comparably aggressive approach to FCA enforcement. Attorney General Sessions publicly supported the law at his confirmation hearing and as a Senator. Moreover, FCA enforcement, generally a bipartisan issue, coincides with the Republican Party platform of curtailing waste, fraud, and abuse. President Trump’s nomination of Rod J. Rosenstein, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, for the position of Deputy Attorney General, also indicates that the Justice Department’s FCA policy will resemble current approaches, given Rosenstein’s own extensive prosecutorial experience, including in bringing FCA actions. As a result, of all the changes that Sessions is expected to bring to the Justice Department, FCA litigation may be one of the aspects of the preceding administration that he will embrace.
Since the FCA was modernized in 1986, FCA recoveries have multiplied under each new president. For example, the Justice Department’s average annual recoveries were $264 million under George H.W. Bush, $800 million under Clinton, and approximately $1.8 billion under George W. Bush. President Obama’s Justice Department recovered an annual average of nearly $4 billion in FCA settlements and judgments. There is good reason to expect the new administration to continue the trend.
