In one of their first concrete actions of the new congressional session, the chairmen of the committees that oversee the Department of Veterans Affairs introduced a bill Thursday aimed at making it easier to fire bad VA employees.
The bill, called the Restore VA Accountability Act, would revive and retool expedited firing authorities that Congress first passed in 2017 but which were later gutted by court rulings and labor board decisions.
“While VA employs some of the finest men and women, it only takes a few bad employees to disrupt the culture and service at the VA,” Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jerry Moran, R-Kan., said in a statement. “This bill would restore the intent of Congress and help make certain that veterans receive the high-quality care and benefits they’ve earned and VA staff have the healthy workplace they deserve.”
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Moran introduced the bill alongside House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Mike Bost, R-Ill. The bill also has seven co-sponsors in the Senate and 25 in the House, all Republicans.
Bost and Moran previously introduced the legislation in the last congressional session, but it saw little progress. Last session, though, Moran was not the chairman of the Senate committee because the chamber was controlled by Democrats. As chairman, Moran will have more power to push the bill forward.
Reintroducing the bill as one of their first acts in the new congressional session signals an intent by Bost and Moran to make it a priority.
“We’re going to restore the intent of Congress — and President Trump — by bringing accountability back for good, because America’s veterans deserve to know that the employees who are providing them with the care and services they have earned are the best and the brightest,” Bost said in a statement, referring to President-elect Donald Trump.
During Trump’s first term, Congress passed the VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act that gave the department’s secretary the ability to fast-track the firing of employees accused of misconduct or poor performance. It was one of the pieces of veterans legislation Trump frequently touted as a top accomplishment, alongside the Mission Act that expanded veterans’ access to non-VA doctors.
But amid allegations that the Trump administration failed to bargain with employee unions over the implementation of the law in violation of union contracts, federal courts, the Federal Labor Relations Authority and the Merit Systems Protection Board issued decisions that defanged the law.
As a result of the rulings, the Biden administration announced in 2023 that it would no longer use the authorities in the law. The VA also reportedly reinstated more than 100 employees it removed under the law and paid $134 million to 1,700 former VA employees as part of a settlement with the American Federation of Government Employees union.
Bost and Moran’s bill would again make it easier for the VA secretary to fire, suspend or demote a civil servant “if the secretary determines by substantial evidence that the performance or misconduct of the covered individual warrants such action,” according to the bill text. It would also “strengthen the authorities VA has to discipline unsatisfactory VA middle managers [by] aligning its middle manager disciplinary process with the process currently in place for members of the Senior Executive Service,” according to a summary from Bost’s office.
When a House Veterans Affairs subcommittee debated the bill in 2023, the Biden administration said it opposed the legislation because VA officials were “confident that the authorities currently available to the VA are sufficient to hold employees accountable for misconduct and poor performance.”
“VA is concerned this language will continue to be the subject of extensive litigation and constitutional challenges, creating uncertainty and potentially leading to a continued pattern of overturned disciplinary actions,” the department added in written testimony.
But the GOP-controlled House and Senate are likely to find more support for the bill in the incoming Trump administration. During his reelection campaign, Trump repeatedly vowed to “restore accountability” at the VA, in an apparent reference to reviving one of his signature laws.
“On day one of my new administration, I will fully restore the use of VA accountability and direct my secretary of Veterans Affairs … to fire every corrupt abuser of our veterans,” Trump said at a June rally.
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