Additionally, this legislation would offer the Secretary discretion to recoup bonuses and awards (to include all or a portion of relocation expenses) paid to any VA employee who has committed an act of fraud, waste, or malfeasance.
Advertisement
The casus belli this time appears to be Rep. Jeff Miller’s, R-Fla., VA Accountability First and Appeals Modernization Act of 2016, which hit the House floor on September 13.
The House on Tuesday will take up another of a string of bills created to give the Department of Veterans Affairs a freer hand in disciplining its employees for poor performance or misconduct – provisions the Obama administration has opposed, although not to the point of threatening a veto.
Miller said that the statement left “wiggle room” for House Democrats to support the bill.
The latest bill, which the House will consider on Tuesday and Wednesday, would eliminate a lengthy appeals process and allow the VA to fire or demote employees more easily for misconduct or poor performance.
Miller, R-Fla., said reform efforts “are doomed to fail” until the problem of employee accountability is fixed.
GOP lawmakers have been urging the VA to fire more workers as a key step to improving the scandal-plagued agency. And more alarming still are reports of extreme misconduct-deception about wait times, armed robbery, intoxication and drug abuse on the job-by VA employees. “Union bosses and defenders of the broken status quo will oppose this bill, and that is exactly why it must become law”.
Although the Senate bill isn’t flawless, AFGE supports this compromise legislation because it will provide real accountability at the VA without undermining the apolitical federal civil service.
Cox said that AFGE – which counts almost 100,000 VA employees as members – is supporting the competing Veterans First Act, a Senate bill that was introduced in May but has also faced criticism from both Miller and other employee associations.
The Senate bill would grant the VA secretary greater authority to discipline senior executives, while requiring appeals to be decided within 90 days. The bipartisan bill also would streamline removal of rank-and-file employee based on performance or misconduct and would ensure that employees do not receive pay or benefits while they appeal a removal decision.
Advertisement
“Indeed, almost every day the VA is engulfed in a new crisis or scandal, yet the department is unable to discipline the employees responsible”, the column said.
