{"id":26417,"date":"2023-07-12T22:21:08","date_gmt":"2023-07-12T22:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/uncategorized\/2023\/07\/12\/house-republicans-argue-for-discipline-of-bad-apples-at-va\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T05:10:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T05:10:13","slug":"house-republicans-argue-for-discipline-of-bad-apples-at-va","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/congress\/2023\/07\/12\/house-republicans-argue-for-discipline-of-bad-apples-at-va\/","title":{"rendered":"House Republicans argue for discipline of \u2018bad apples\u2019 at VA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

House lawmakers discussed a bill Wednesday that would expedite firing of U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs employees and limit appeals of those decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republicans have called it a restoration of accountability for veterans and Americans who are \u201cfed up with bad VA employees\u201d not being appropriately disciplined, said House Veterans Affairs\u2019 Committee Chairman Mike Bost, a Republican from Illinois.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVeterans are at the core of the mission, not bureaucrats,\u201d he said at the hearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VA does not support the bill, saying when there appears to be a delay in addressing a case of misconduct, which Bost questioned, it\u2019s not because the agency is lacking power to deal with it. It\u2019s because it takes time to conduct a thorough investigation, said Rondy Waye, executive director of Human Capital Programs at the agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A perceived delay on the front end would be there whether the agency used the bill\u2019s procedures or not, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Restore the Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability Act<\/a>, introduced last month by Bost<\/a> and supported by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), clarifies similar legislation signed by President Donald Trump in 2017. However, that law has been mired by legal challenges<\/a> at federal courts, the Merit Systems Protection Board and the Federal Labor Relations Authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lewis Ratchford, the agency\u2019s chief security officer, said in his statement<\/a> that VA is concerned the bill would continue to throw up time-consuming legal objections, \u201ccreating uncertainty and potentially leading to a continued pattern of overturned disciplinary actions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For that reason, Secretary Denis McDonough said in March the agency wouldn\u2019t be using some of the authorities, saying that the law \u201cwasn\u2019t really helping us manage our workforce as much as it was getting us in front of federal judges and other administrative bodies,\u201d Military Times previously reported. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patrick Murray, the legislative director at Veterans of Foreign Wars, said while the original law may have been rendered inert by legal interference, the new bill would fill gaps and allow for proper implementation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For several years, and increasingly so as the agency has taken on more services for burn pit victims, Congress has been on the VA\u2019s doorstep asking about workforce accountability. In 2014, there were questions about whether employees were being appropriately dismissed in connection with a scandal about juked performance metrics<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Montana Republican Matt Rosendale said the 2017 act led to a 50% increase in removal actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\t