110 HR 2292 IH: Pay Veterans First U.S. House of Representatives 2007-05-14 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

I 110th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 2292 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.

1.

Short title

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

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.