Harrisburg, PA − February 17, 2025 − Today, Senator Lindsey M. Williams (D-Allegheny) and Senator Kristin Phillips-Hill (R-York) announced that they plan to reintroduce the Commonwealth Fraud Prevention Act for Taxpayer Accountability. This legislation will serve as a Pennsylvania False Claims Act that will protect whistleblowers and encourage the reporting of fraud, waste, and abuse of government funds.
The Commonwealth Fraud Prevention Act encourages private citizens to come forward as whistleblowers to report those filing false or fraudulent claims against the Pennsylvania government in order to protect taxpayer dollars. This legislation includes all of the provisions required for compliance with the Federal False Claims Act, which will allow Pennsylvania to recover an additional 10% of any monies recovered under the law.
“Budget Hearings are starting this week in both the House and Senate for the 2025-26 budget. But once again, the General Assembly is negotiating how to spend billions of taxpayer dollars without the Commonwealth Fraud Prevention Act, which will protect those dollars from waste, fraud, and abuse,” said Senator Williams. “As a whistleblower and as an attorney who worked with whistleblowers for years, I can tell you that people want to do the right thing and report fraud when they see it. But there are a lot of risks in doing so. Protecting and encouraging whistleblowers to come forward is the best and most effective way to prevent fraud and protect our tax dollars.”
“Pennsylvania taxpayers deserve accountability, and the failure to adopt a civil fraud statute has cost the Commonwealth,” said Senator Phillips-Hill. “It’s time to change that. This bipartisan proposal will finally provide the protections needed to ensure whistleblowers, those on the front lines who can expose fraud, stop scams, and protect hard-earned taxpayer dollars. Other states have proven the success of these measures, recovering substantial funds that would have otherwise been lost. Pennsylvania must step up and ensure that fraudsters are held accountable at every level of state government.”
The Commonwealth Fraud Prevention Act will protect whistleblowers against retaliation for reporting waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer dollars. Similar legislation in other states has shown extraordinary results. Since the enactment of the federal False Claims Act, thirty-one states have passed their own state false claims acts, including several of our bordering states. In FY2024, the federal False Claims Act resulted in the recovery of over $2.9 billion in taxpayer dollars. FY2025 is already off to a strong start with over $850 million of taxpayer dollars recovered.
###