Two Florida Republicans are teaming up to urge the U.S. Senate Veterans Affairs Committee to move quickly on their bill giving the U.S. Veterans Affairs (VA) secretary more power to remove incompetent employees.
Last April, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and U.S Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., the chairman of the U.S. House Veterans Affairs Committee, introduced the “VA Accountability Act." The legislation gives the VA secretary more authority to fire employees while still giving the employee the right to appeal with the Merit Systems Protection Board. The bill also gives some protection to whistle-blowers and extends the probationary period for new employees from a year to 18 months. Under the proposal, the Government Accountability Office would look at how much VA resources, including space, are used for labor union activities.
Veterans groups, including the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and Concerned Veterans for America lined up behind the proposal when it was brought out.
With both Rubio and Miller leading the charge, Congress passed a reform measure in 2014 after reports emerged about veterans dying after being placed on altered waiting lists while seeking medical treatment from VA facilities. Reports emerged that few VA employees lost their jobs after the scandal broke though then-VA Secretary Eric Shinseki resigned his post under fire.
While the House passed the bill, it remains stuck before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. At the end of last week, Rubio and Miller wrote U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga. and urged him to speed the bill through the committee.
“Almost every day Americans are reminded that the federal civil service system is designed to coddle and protect corrupt and incompetent bureaucrats rather than facilitate a fair and efficient climate of accountability” Miller said on Thursday. “Nowhere is this more visible than the Department of Veterans Affairs. VA’s inability to hold problem employees accountable is at the root of all of the department’s most serious problems, and that’s why we are calling on the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs – and the Senate as a whole – to act to give the VA secretary swift and comprehensive disciplinary authority over all VA employees. It’s time for the Senate to get in step with veterans and taxpayers and get behind commonsense proposals like the House-passed H.R. 1994 and S. 1082, which would help replace VA’s culture of complacency with a climate of real accountability. Until then, VA – forced to tolerate corruption and incompetence in its ranks – will continue to lurch from one scandal to the next and veterans will continue to suffer.”
Isakson's office sent a statement off to the Federal Times and insisted their boss supported more accountability at the VA including what Miller and Rubio want.
"We are indeed working on a large legislative package that includes a number of provisions to hold employees at the VA more accountable by giving the VA secretary the ability to hire and discipline employees more effectively,” the senator’s office told Federal Times. “In addition, the legislation will include numerous provisions to improve veterans' health care and benefits, such as improving the VA's caregivers program and addressing the backlog of veterans' appeals."Senator Isakson agrees that there are many problems at the Department of Veterans Affairs that must be addressed, most pressing of which is the need for accountability at the department” Isakson’s office continued.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
