On January 28, 2026, Brenna Jenny, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Commercial Litigation Branch of the Department of Justice’s Civil Division, delivered comments to False Claims Act (“FCA”) practitioners about DOJ’s FCA statistics for the previous year and some of her office’s priorities for the years ahead. Jenny leads the DOJ attorneys that handle FCA investigations nationwide. Delivered at an American Conference Institute meeting in New York, Jenny touted DOJ’s record-breaking total of settlements and judgments exceeding $6.8 billion last year and confirmed there is more to come.

DOJ’s report for 2025 FCA statistics confirms that the FCA is one of DOJ’s most potent and frequently-used investigation tools. In her comments, Jenny highlighted cases that targeted kickbacks in the health care industry, particularly in situations when participants in kickback schemes tried to conceal their connections with each other. She also noted that DOJ would be focusing on investigations into inflated prescription prices, especially where pharmaceutical companies inflate average wholesale prices and then try to profit by marketing the resulting spread. A particular focus for DOJ will be investigations into health care providers that deliver substandard care or medical device manufacturers that make substandard products. Jenny finds these issues especially troubling since inadequate care and inferior products diminish patients’ quality of life instead of improving it.  She also highlighted that in 2026, the DOJ will focus on network adequacy, particularly when patients face delays in receiving care.

DOJ’s FCA enforcement activity will also expand in areas other than healthcare. Jenny described a trade fraud task force that she recently founded, which will coordinate with other federal authorities and use monthly meetings to identify possible targets for FCA or Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act investigations. Also in the trade arena, Jenny noted that 2025 saw the highest ever number of qui tam whistleblower cases related to trade fraud. These included allegations of underpayment of duties, using intentionally incorrect tariff classifications, undervaluing products with intent to avoid duties, misstatements of countries of origin, and transshipments of products to conceal country of origin.

Jenny also focused on cyber fraud and data security requirements as FCA enforcement priority areas for the coming year. She described a significant increase in qui tam whistleblower allegations in both areas. Notably, DOJ is evaluating numerous cases where contractors certified compliance with contractual data security parameters but failed to meet them.

Noting the formation of DOJ’s Civil Rights Fraud Initiative (“CRFI”) in May 2025 (covered here and here), Jenny explained that 2026 will likely see federal investigators more active in investigations that target unlawful discrimination. She confirmed that this area is not covered in DOJ’s 2025 statistical review, but that 2026 would be a different story. DOJ and the CRFI will be closely reviewing hiring and promotion practices and compensation packages, looking for evidence of discrimination.

With an eye toward recent challenges to the constitutionality of the FCA’s qui tam provisions, Jenny emphasized the importance of qui tam whistleblower referrals to DOJ’s overall enforcement capabilities. She noted that DOJ’s authority to dismiss qui tam cases under 31 U.S.C. § 3730(c)(2)(A) is critical to DOJ’s maintaining authority over any action initiated by a qui tam relator. To that end, Jenny noted that dismissals of qui tam FCA cases had dropped to an average of six per year, but that DOJ moved to dismiss 25 cases in 2025 alone. She explained that, going forward, DOJ will exercise its discretion and dismissal authority, particularly in cases where DOJ deems the allegations to lack merit or the matter is already under investigation. She also confirmed that DOJ attorneys will consider dismissal as part of any declination decision.

DOJ’s FCA statistics for 2025 show a marked increase in cases initiated by the government. Jenny expects this to continue in 2026, noting that investigators are using data analytics tools to look for signals of fraud. As an example, she described scenarios where investigators will look for situations where pricing or costs may fall far outside normal ranges, such that these anomalies may be signs of unlawful activity.