Biden signs bill saving CFTC whistleblower program from financial collapse

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On July 6, President Biden signed in law emergency legislation to fund the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) whistleblower program. The law project, an amended version of the CFTC Fund Management Act, passed unanimously in the Senate in May and passed in the House in June. The law saves the highly successful whistleblower program from financial collapse.

Whistleblower advocates and members of Congress worked together to pass the legislation after the financial crisis hit. CFTC Whistleblower Program became apparent during the last session of Congress. According to senior whistleblower lawyer Stephen M. Kohn, founding partner of qui tam solidify Kohn, Kohn and Colapinto, the program fell into crisis because of its own success. Since 2014, the program has awarded approximately $ 123 million to whistleblowers, and enforcement actions associated with these rewards have resulted in more than $ 1 billion in penalties. However, due to a cap on the fund used to fund the program, the recent growth and success of the program has depleted its funds.

On February 24, Senators Charles Grassley (R-IA), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) introduced the CFTC Fund Management Act to save the program from denunciation. of financial collapse. “The CFTC’s whistleblower program has been far more successful than Congress imagined when we put it in place in 2010. We cannot allow this program to be a victim of its own success.” Grassley said in a press release On the bill.

On April 30, several whistleblower advocacy groups led by the National whistleblower center (NWC) sent a letter to the U.S. Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee urging members to support passage of the CFTC Fund Management Act. The letter said that the whistleblower program fund was so depleted that “the CFTC has started delaying the processing of whistleblower cases due to a lack of funds and the CFTC whistleblower office may be forced to put more money into it. staff on leave ”.

The amended version of the CFTC Funds Management Act that Biden enacted resolves the financial crisis by creating a fund specifically for the operations of the CFTC’s whistleblower office. This new fund is separate from the fund used to pay whistleblower rewards. This ensures that the Bureau can continue to function even if large scholarships deplete the scholarship fund.

“President Biden’s swift action on the CFTC Fund Management Act demonstrates the power of bipartisan collaboration and the value of whistleblowers and their advocates,” said Siri Nelson, executive director of NWC. “Whistleblower Network News ” The 2020 Marist poll showed that whistleblower protection is important to voters and NWC has supported this bill since its initial introduction in the last session. I am so happy that Congress and the President have listened to the will of the people and prevented this fantastic program from becoming, as Senator Grassley has described it, “a victim of its own success.”

“NWC would like to thank Senators Chuck Grassley, Maggie Hassan, Joni Ernst, Tammy Baldwin and Susan Collins for their unwavering commitment to this bill and the CFTC program,” added Nelson. Senators Grassley and Ernst will both speak at the NWC National Whistleblower Day 2021 Event. The virtual event is a celebration of whistleblowers with panels and speeches from policy makers, whistleblower experts, whistleblowers and their advocates. Gary Gensler, Chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), will deliver a keynote address.

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Signature of invoice: S. 409 and S. 1340

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