From his perch as chairman of the U.S. House Veterans Affairs Committee, retiring U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., pushed back at a request for higher bonuses for employees from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson sent Miller on Monday urging the committee to reform the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) which President Barack Obama signed into law over the summer. Part of the law directs money which had been used for bonuses for VA employees over to recovery programs for veterans battling addictions.
Gibson pointed to the VA tightening its belt in recent years and insisted cutting bonuses would lead to a watered down workforce as the Department could not attract and retain the best employees.
“It defies logic that Congress should so severely limit employee awards and incentives, for VA alone, at such a pivotal time in our transformation,” Gibson insisted, noting that this will lead to a 30 percent cut in bonuses and employee incentives.
The Panhandle Republican, who was first elected to Congress in 2001 and announced this year he would not run again, fired back this week.
“Clearly, the judgment of VA leaders is clouded by their continual obsession with cash bonuses, awards and incentives for employees even in the face of the ongoing scandals plaguing the agency,” Miller said on Wednesday. “Imagine how much better off the department and our veterans would be if VA leaders spent more time focused on fixing the agency’s many problems rather than appeasing bureaucrats and union bosses.”
Miller sent Gibson a written response on Tuesday noting that he had not expressed any objections to the redirecting of funds as CARA was being crafted.
“Never once in this long, public process did the administration criticize Congress for including the offsets you propose to repeal," Miller pointed out and insisted shifting the money from bonuses to addiction treatment programs was “the best option.”
Miller also insisted the committee had no appetite to change the law.
"The bottom line is we felt strongly that facilitating the recovery of veterans suffering from addiction was far more important than bankrolling employee bonuses," Miller wrote Gibson.
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