House bill would give VA more authority over executives

Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, introduced legislation Thursday to give the Department of Veteran Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald more authority over the department’s senior executives. 

The VA Accountability to Veterans Act of 2015 comes as the department tries to rebuild its trust with veterans after an investigation last year linked long patient wait times to patient deaths. It was later uncovered that VA leadership misled and lied to Congress about the scope of the department’s review into what became a high-profile scandal for the agency.

{mosads}Miller’s bill would allow the McDonald to reduce the retirement pensions of senior executive service (SES) employees who are convicted of a crime and limit the amount executives can spend on paid administrative leave to up to 14 days unless he or she can show good cause for an extension.

The bill would also reform the VA’s SES performance appraisal system so that only 30 percent of senior executives receive top performance ratings and qualify for bonuses, require additional transparency regarding SES performance and require that SES employees change jobs within the department at least once every five years. 

“More than nine months after the VA scandal, Americans are asking ‘where is the accountability?’ Unfortunately, VA doesn’t have a good answer to this question,” Miller said in a statement. 

“That’s why our focus remains on giving the VA secretary more tools to ensure corrupt and incompetent executives face serious consequences for mismanagement and malfeasance that harms veterans.”