[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5254 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5254

  To appropriately limit the authority to award bonuses to employees.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 29, 2014

  Ms. Sinema (for herself and Mr. Benishek) introduced the following 
 bill; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government 
                                 Reform

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To appropriately limit the authority to award bonuses to employees.

    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 ``Stop Wasteful Bonuses in Department 
of Veterans Affairs Act of 2014'' or the ``VA Bonus Accountability 
Act''.

SEC. 2. BONUSES.

    (a) Adverse Findings and Employees Under Investigation.--Chapter 45 
of title 5, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the 
following:

            ``Subchapter IV--Limitations on Bonus Authority

``SEC. 4531. CERTAIN FORMS OF MISCONDUCT.

    ``(a) Definitions.--In this section--
            ``(1) the term `adverse finding' relating to an employee 
        means a determination that the conduct of the employee--
                    ``(A) violated a policy of the agency for which the 
                employee may be removed or suspended; or
                    ``(B) violated a law for which the employee may be 
                imprisoned of more than 1 year;
            ``(2) the term `agency' has the meaning given that term 
        under section 551; and
            ``(3) the term `bonus' means any bonus or cash award, 
        including--
                    ``(A) an award under this chapter;
                    ``(B) an award under section 5384; and
                    ``(C) a retention bonus under section 5754.
    ``(b) Adverse Findings.--
            ``(1) In general.--The head of an agency shall not award a 
        bonus to an employee of the agency until 5 years after the end 
        of the fiscal year in which the Inspector General or another 
        senior ethics official of the agency or the Comptroller General 
        of the United States makes an adverse finding relating to the 
        employee.
            ``(2) Previously awarded bonuses.--If the Inspector General 
        or another senior ethics official of the agency or the 
        Comptroller General of the United States makes an adverse 
        finding relating to an employee, the head of the agency 
        employing the employee, after notice and an opportunity for a 
        hearing, shall issue an order directing the employee to repay 
        the amount of any bonus awarded to the employee during the year 
        during which the adverse finding is made.''.
    (b) Technical and Conforming Amendment.--The table of sections for 
chapter 45 of title 5, United States Code, is amended by adding at the 
end the following:

             ``subchapter iv--limitations on bonus authority

``4531. Certain forms of misconduct.''.
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