Why must you continue to constrain my Attorney General?
Please, someone correct me if I am wrong, but it seems this bill is a direct result of the enactment of the Medicaid False Claims Act enhancements, thereby, allowing the Attorney General to proceed to recoup its 10% of the federal share in successful actions. Now, it seems that Management and Budget wants to micro-manage this portion of settlement amounts.
This small portion, I thought, was suppose to enhance the functions of oversight of the Attorney General to continue bringing forth accountability and transparency to reduce waste and fraud in the Medicaid programs of the state. Now, the state wants to give the Attorney General an "appropriation allowance" for being a good little boy and doing what he has been constrained from doing for so long?
These actions that are the subject of this bill are filed under seal. Reporting case specifics would, quintessentially, be breaking the seal. Aggregate quarterly reporting will work, but it does not ensure the integrity of the Department of Attorney General because this bill requires a breakdown of settlements, and since the recouped federal portion is supposed to go to the Attorney General to continue its operations in litigating Medicaid False Claims, this bill limits resources and reduces effectiveness.
Let's just keep the reporting requirement annual. Let the Office become self-sustaining. Let's keep personal politics out of this.
We have the nation's most powerful Attorney General yet I am the only one who is standing up and advocating for him. That's just pitiful. Unleash my Attorney General.
Beverly Tran