Grassley Celebrates President Lincoln’s Birthday, Champions the Historic Success of the False Claims Act

Floor Remarks by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa Senate President Pro Tempore “Celebrating President Lincoln’s Birthday” Thursday, February 12, 2026 VIDEO As we celebrate the 250th birthday of this great America and our independence from Great Britain, I want to recognize the birth of our nation’s 16th president on this very day, February 12, 217 years ago. Americans know that President Lincoln was instrumental in preserving the United States and abolishing slavery. He also championed a law to fight fraud.... In 1863, President Lincoln signed the False Claims Act . “Lincoln’s Law,” as it’s referred to, helped expose fraudsters [who were], at that time, selling inferior supplies at premium prices to the Union Army during the Civil War. So, how did this law work? It gave patriots a financial incentive to blow the whistle on wrongdoing, rewarding them with a share of the fines collected through litigation. Now, what happened to Lincoln’s Law during World War II and for reasons I don’t know, but I can [suspect] that maybe Congress, at that time, felt that reporting this stuff may hurt our defense efforts to win World War II or whatever reason, due to the legislation. Then, four decades ago, I strengthened Lincoln’s Law. I wrote the 1986 amendments to Lincoln’s Law that restored this commonsense tool to fight fraud. By empowering patriotic whistleblowers to reveal wrongdoing, the law continues to deliver for the American people, returning approximately $85 billion for taxpayers, since my amendments were adopted 40 years ago. And that’s not all – there's a [deterrent] effect of the legislation. My amendment[s] to the False Claims Act have saved even more taxpayers’ dollars by deterring untold billions of dollars of fraud in the first place. In the last fiscal year, the federal government recovered over $6.8 billion in fraudulent payments . This is the largest single-year recovery in the history of the False Claims Act. As we observe President Lincoln’s birthday on February 12, I also want to remind Americans to celebrate the patriotic whistleblowers who’ve used Lincoln’s Law to hold wrongdoers accountable and recover a lot of taxpayers’ money. You can be sure that I’ll keep [championing] the False Claims Act to protect truth-tellers from retaliation when they stick their necks out to blow the whistle on waste, fraud and abuse. -30-