[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2292 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2292

     To prohibit the payment of bonuses to certain officers of the 
  Department of Veterans Affairs unless fewer than 100,000 disability 
         compensation claims are pending before the Department.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 14, 2007

Mr. Hall of New York (for himself, Mr. Space, Mr. Donnelly, Mr. Walz of 
Minnesota, Ms. Hooley, Ms. Bean, Mr. McNerney, Mr. Hare, Mr. Courtney, 
  Mr. Mahoney of Florida, Mr. Altmire, and Mr. Kagen) introduced the 
   following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Veterans' 
 Affairs, and in addition to the Committee on Oversight and Government 
 Reform, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in 
   each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the 
                jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
     To prohibit the payment of bonuses to certain officers of the 
  Department of Veterans Affairs unless fewer than 100,000 disability 
         compensation claims are pending before the Department.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Pay Veterans First Act''.

SEC. 2. LIMITATION ON PAYMENT OF SALARIES AND PERFORMANCE BONUSES TO 
              CERTAIN OFFICERS OF DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS.

    (a) Limitation on Payment of Bonuses.--For fiscal year 2007, no 
bonus described in subsection (b) may be paid to any officer of the 
Department of Veterans Affairs who is appointed by the President, by 
and with the consent of the Senate, or who is a senior politically 
appointed officer unless, at the time such payment is made, fewer than 
100,000 claims for disability compensation under chapter 11 of title 
38, United States Code, are pending before the Department.
    (b) Bonuses Described.--A bonus described in this subsection is any 
of the following:
            (1) A performance award under section 5384 of title 5, 
        United States Code.
            (2) A performance-based cash award under section 4505a of 
        such title.
    (c) Definition of Senior Politically Appointed Officer.--For 
purposes of this section, the term ``senior politically appointed 
officer'' means any officer who serves--
            (1) as an Assistant Secretary;
            (2) as a Deputy Under Secretary;
            (3) in a Senior Executive Service position and is not a 
        career appointee as defined under section 3132(a)(4) of title 
        5, United States Code; or
            (4) in a position of a confidential or policy-determining 
        character under schedule C of subpart C of part 213 of title 5 
        of the Code of Federal Regulations.
    (d) Comptroller General Reports.--For any fiscal quarter of fiscal 
year 2007 during which the percentage of claims for disability 
compensation processed by the Department of Veterans Affairs that are 
disallowed exceeds the percentage that is 10 percent higher than the 
percentage of such claims that were disallowed during fiscal year 2006, 
the Comptroller General shall conduct an audit of the Department's 
processing of such claims to determine the reason for the increase in 
the percentage of disallowed claims and, not later than 30 days after 
the last day of that fiscal quarter, shall submit to Congress the 
results of such audit.
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