Burns bill to fight fraud and protect taxpayers passes state House
Would give attorney general, private citizens power to file civil lawsuits
Rep. Frank Burns July 9, 2025 | 1:32 PM
HARRISBURG, July 9 – Those who defraud Pennsylvania and its taxpayers on a large scale should be worried about state Rep. Frank Burns' bill that passed the House today, which would allow for civil lawsuits to recoup any ill-gotten funds.
A staunch advocate for rooting out financial waste, fraud and abuse, Burns, D-Cambria, is author of H.B. 1697 which seeks to enact a false claims law in Pennsylvania -- allowing the state attorney general to seek repayment of any government money obtained by submitting false information.
"While the attorney general is already empowered to criminally prosecute fraudsters, my bill would add the ability to file civil suits to the AG's arsenal, providing a mechanism to recoup misappropriated taxpayer money," Burns said. "Examples would be hospitals or doctors billing Medicaid for procedures that were not performed or contractors charging for work on state projects that was never done.
"It's not enough to send these bad actors to jail while leaving millions on the table," Burns said. "We need to make sure that every last nickel pilfered from the taxpayers via deception is recouped, so it can be properly spent improving the lives of Pennsylvanians."
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"It's not enough to send these bad actors to jail while leaving millions on the table," Burns said. "We need to make sure that every last nickel pilfered from the taxpayers via deception is recouped, so it can be properly spent improving the lives of Pennsylvanians."
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Toward that end, Burns said his bill would incentivize private citizens to expose fraudulent activity, by giving as much as 30 percent of any recouped money to any person who files a successful civil lawsuit on behalf of the commonwealth when taxpayer funds are being misused. Burns' bill also would protect those whistleblowers from retaliation.
“Coming forward to expose fraud often causes individuals to risk their professional careers and the well-being of their families,” Burns said. “Private citizens should not be afraid to call out misused funds, and my legislation provides them with a deserved layer of protection.”
Burn's legislation is modeled after the federal False Claims Act, and 29 other states, along with the District of Columbia, already have similar laws in place. Pennsylvania is the largest state without one — a situation Burns hopes is put on the path toward rectification as the state Senate takes up his bill.
"Simply by enacting a false claims law in Pennsylvania that mirrors the federal law, the state becomes eligible for a larger share of false claims lawsuits brought at the federal level," Burns said. "Those suits can generate hundreds of millions of dollars in recovery of taxpayer money – money that we would otherwise leave on the table without this law on the books."
Rep. Seth Grove, R-York, supported Burns’ bill in the House chamber, saying, “When we have a national false claims act at the national level, we miss out on a 10 percent share because we don’t have a claim here. That’s millions of dollars we’ve lost in the last 10 years.”
Federal false claims settlements and judgments exceeded $2.68 billion for fiscal year 2023. In one of the largest procurement false claim settlements, Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp. paid $377 million to the U.S. Department of Justice to resolve allegations that it overbilled the government. The suit claimed the company billed government contracts for non-government work that provided no benefit for the U.S. government.
Just last week, the U.S. Attorney’s Office charged an Eastern Pennsylvania woman in a home care fraud kickback scheme that bilked Medicaid out of nearly $1.1 million. The woman allegedly forged doctors’ signatures on forms granting home care eligibility for individuals not living in Pennsylvania and who were not entitled to the services