Update: Despite political obstacles, bill for a False Claims Act moves forward

In last Friday’s subscriber-only PIM Weekly Report, we wrote about the travails Rep. Steve Simon (DFL-St. Louis Park) (pictured) has faced in trying to secure passage of a Minnesota False Claims Act, which would create a class of civil penalties for making false claims to state
or local government and allow whistleblowers to receive financial rewards for
exposing such claims.

Twenty-two other states and the federal government have already passed similar measures, but this time around the Minnesota Attorney General’s office and former AG Mike Hatch have tried to hamstring the bill, which they have supported in past sessions. The about-face is apparently due in large part to a vendetta against Simon, who has pushed for investigation of the AG’s office by the Office of Legislative Auditor.

In Friday’s story, we reported that the bill seemed to be stuck in the Senate State Government Budget Division. But on Saturday we ran into Senate Finance Committee chair Dick Cohen (DFL-St. Paul) at the Capitol, and he tells PIM that he expects the bill’s Senate companion, SF0082, to reach his committee this week, possibly as soon as Tuesday.

One Response to “Update: Despite political obstacles, bill for a False Claims Act moves forward”

1. Anonymous Says:
   May 4th, 2009 at 10:25 am

   Thanks for this post, Steve. While Simon has shown himself to have a spine, Mike Hatch has - once again! - shown himself to be the most vindictive and two-faced scumbag Minnesota politics has ever seen. Consider: after supporting this bill for years, Hatch turns around and tries to kill it because the sponsor is calling for an investigation into the protege whose correspondence he still dictates. This isn’t just unprincipled; it’s downright pathological. The fact that the DFL and its union supporters endorsed a psychopath like Hatch is to its everlasting discredit. I hope you’ll stay on this beat.