[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3459 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3459

      To direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to make certain 
    improvements in the transparency of the personnel vacancies and 
 staffing levels of the Department of Veterans Affairs, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 27, 2017

  Mr. Brown of Maryland (for himself and Mr. DeFazio) introduced the 
   following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Veterans' 
                                Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
      To direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to make certain 
    improvements in the transparency of the personnel vacancies and 
 staffing levels 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 ``VA Staffing and Vacancies 
Transparency Act of 2017''.

SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS REGARDING DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS 
              STAFFING LEVELS.

    (a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) The Department of Veterans Affairs needs to fill at 
        least 45,000 positions.
            (2) Prolonged personnel vacancies in the Department result 
        in staffing shortages that cause veterans to receive delayed 
        benefits and services.
    (b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that the 
Department should make the resolution of staffing shortages a top 
priority.

SEC. 3. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS PERSONNEL TRANSPARENCY.

    (a) Publication of Staffing and Vacancies.--
            (1) Website required.--Not later than 30 days after the 
        date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Veterans 
        Affairs shall make publicly available on an internet website of 
        the Department of Veterans Affairs the following information, 
        which shall be displayed by departmental component or, in the 
        case of information relating to Veterans Health Administration 
        positions, by medical facility:
                    (A) The number of personnel encumbering positions.
                    (B) The number of accessions and de-accessions of 
                personnel during the month preceding the date of the 
                publication of the information.
                    (C) The number of vacancies, by occupation.
                    (D) The number of active job postings that have 
                been filled during the 30-day period ending on the date 
                of publication of the information, including the length 
                of time for which each position was posted prior to 
                being filled.
            (2) Update of information.--The Secretary shall update the 
        information on the website required under paragraph (1) on a 
        monthly basis.
            (3) Treatment of contractor positions.--Any Department of 
        Veterans Affairs position that is filled through a contractor 
        employee may not be treated as a Department position for 
        purposes of the information required to be published under 
        paragraph (1).
            (4) Inspector general review.--On a semi-annual basis, the 
        Inspector General of the Department shall review the 
        administration of the website required under paragraph (1) and 
        make recommendations relating to the improvement of such 
        administration.
    (b) Report to Congress.--The Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall 
submit to Congress an annual report on the steps the Department is 
taking to achieve full staffing capacity. Each such report shall 
include the amount of additional funds necessary to enable the 
Department to reach full staffing capacity.
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