Cook County v. United States ex rel. Chandler, 538 U.S. 119, 15 (2003)

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Cite as: 538 U. S. 119 (2003)

Opinion of the Court

merely that the treble damages feature of the 1986 amendments was meant to bypass municipal corporations; the argument is that the treble damages amendment must be read to eliminate the FCA's coverage of municipal corporations entirely, after being the statutory law for over a century. This would be a hard case to make in the abstract, but it is impossible when we consider what is known about the object of the amendments in 1986.

The basic purpose of the 1986 amendments was to make the FCA a "more useful tool against fraud in modern times." S. Rep., at 2. Because Congress was concerned about pervasive fraud in "all Government programs," ibid., it allowed private parties to sue even based on information already in the Government's possession, see Hughes Aircraft Co. v. United States ex rel. Schumer, 520 U. S. 939, 946 (1997); increased the Government's measure of recovery; and enhanced the incentives for relators to bring suit. Yet the County urges that in so doing Congress made local governments, which today often administer or receive federal funds, immune not only from treble damages but from any liability whatsoever under the FCA. Congress could have done that, of course, but it makes no sense to suggest Congress did it under its breath.10 It is simply not plausible that Congress intended to repeal municipal liability sub silentio by the very Act it passed to strengthen the Government's hand

10 Indeed, there is some evidence that Congress affirmatively endorsed municipal liability when it passed the 1986 amendments. See S. Rep., at 8 (noting that "[t]he term 'person' is used in its broad sense to include partnerships, associations, and corporations . . . as well as States and political subdivisions thereof" (citing, inter alia, Monell v. New York City Dept. of Social Servs., 436 U. S. 658 (1978))). Although in Vermont Agency of Natural Resources v. United States ex rel. Stevens, 529 U. S. 765 (2000), we considered this evidence insufficient to overcome the background presumption that States are not "persons," in the present case the statement belies the County's argument that Congress meant to change the contrary presumption applicable to local governments and to remove municipal liability.

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