November 19, 2015
The Taxpayers Against Fraud Education Fund awarded Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) the “Honest Abe Integrity in Government” award this week for his work defending whistleblowers and taxpayer funds.
Grassley, a key sponsor of the modern-day False Claims Act, spoke out against corporations that want a requirement for whistleblowers to report wrongdoing internally before taking their claims to the government.
“In many corporations, that just paints a target on your back,” Grassley said at a TAF conference in Washington, DC. “Requiring whistleblowers to report internally would chill reporting and allow misconduct to continue in the shadows.”Grassley also touched on a subject the whistleblower lawyers at the conference know all too well: the “disappointment” of the IRS Whistleblower Program.
“Whistleblowers and their attorneys are mostly sidelined, even though the IRS has the authority to enter into contracts with them to assist their work,” Grassley said. “But, ignoring whistleblowers in the fight against tax fraud makes no sense. That’s like using Morse code when someone has given you a smart phone.”
You can read the senator’s full speech here.