House panel says VA firing bill is necessary to weed out problem employees

A House panel debated a bill Tuesday that would give the Veterans Affairs Department secretary greater authority to fire employees, with many saying it's a necessary step to revive the beleaguered agency.

The bill is similar to one passed last year that gave the VA secretary more leeway in firing senior executives, except this bill (H.R.1994) would extend that authority to all VA employees, not just senior executives. The bill comes as a result of last year's manipulation of wait lists by employees at the VA's Phoenix medical center to make it look like veterans weren't waiting as long for appointments as they actually were.

At the June 2 House Veterans Affairs subcommittee on economic opportunity hearing, Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) said that 99 percent of the more than 300,000 VA employees are dedicated and hardworking, and are not part of the problems that exist at VA.

The VA has a history of transferring problem employees to other offices, Miller said, and the bill is necessary since it allows the agency to fire those employees instead of passing them off to another office.

And while some have questioned whether the bill denies VA workers due process and could scare away whistleblowers, Miller denied those claims.

Though the VA secretary could remove any employee based on misconduct or performance, that employee could file an appeal within seven days with the Merit Systems Protection Board and that panel would have to rule on the firing within 45 days.

That's not far off from the appeals process for most agencies, expect that MSPB normally has only 30 days to rule.

Other than the greater firing authority, the bill would extend the new hire probationary period from one year to 18 months, giving the VA secretary a long look at new employees before making a decision to keep them on board.

For more:
- go to the hearing page
- go to the UStream page for video
- go to the Congress.gov page for H.R. 1994