[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 575 Introduced in House (IH)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 575

 To appropriately limit the authority to award bonuses to employees of 
      the Department of Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 27, 2015

  Ms. Sinema (for herself and Mr. Benishek) 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 appropriately limit the authority to award bonuses to employees of 
      the Department of Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes.

    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 2015'' or the ``VA Bonus Accountability 
Act''.

SEC. 2. LIMITATION ON BONUSES FOR EMPLOYEES OF THE DEPARTMENT OF 
              VETERANS AFFAIRS.

    (a) In General.--Chapter 7 of title 38, United States Code, is 
amended by adding at the end the following:
``Sec. 714. Limitation and repayment of bonuses
    ``(a)(1) If the Comptroller General of the United States, the 
Inspector General of the Department of Veterans Affairs, or any other 
senior ethics official of the Department makes an adverse finding with 
respect to an employee of the Department, the Secretary, after notice 
and an opportunity for a hearing, shall issue an order directing the 
employee to repay to the Department the amount of any bonus paid to the 
employee during the fiscal year in which the adverse finding is made.
    ``(2) If the Comptroller General of the United States, the 
Inspector General of the Department, or any other senior ethics 
official of the Department makes an adverse finding with respect to an 
employee under subsection (a), the Secretary may not award a bonus to 
such employee for a period of 5 years beginning on the last day of the 
fiscal year during which the adverse finding occurred.
    ``(b) In this section--
            ``(1) the term `adverse finding' with respect to an 
        employee means a determination that the conduct of the 
        employee--
                    ``(A) violated a policy of the Department of 
                Veterans Affairs for which the employee may be removed 
                or suspended; or
                    ``(B) violated a law for which the employee may be 
                imprisoned for more than 1 year; and
            ``(2) the term `bonus' means any bonus or cash award, 
        including--
                    ``(A) an award under chapter 45 of title 5;
                    ``(B) an award under section 5384 of such title; 
                and
                    ``(C) a retention bonus under section 5754 of such 
                title.''.
    (b) Technical and Conforming Amendment.--The table of sections for 
chapter 7 of title 38, United States Code, is amended by adding at the 
end the following:

``714. Limitation and repayment of bonuses.''.
    (c) Application.--The amendments made by this section shall apply 
to any bonus paid in fiscal year 2014 and each fiscal year thereafter.
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