[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 76 (Monday, May 18, 2015)]
[House]
[Pages H3259-H3260]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ENSURING VA EMPLOYEE ACCOUNTABILITY ACT
Mr. WENSTRUP. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 1038) to amend title 38, United States Code, to require the
Secretary of Veterans Affairs to retain a copy of any reprimand or
admonishment received by an employee of the Department in the permanent
record of the employee.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 1038
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 ``Ensuring VA Employee
Accountability Act''.
SEC. 2. RETENTION OF RECORDS OF REPRIMANDS AND ADMONISHMENTS
RECEIVED BY 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 new section:
``Sec. 714. Record of reprimands and admonishments
``If any employee of the Department receives a reprimand or
admonishment, the Secretary shall retain a copy of such
reprimand or admonishment in the permanent record of the
employee as long as the employee is employed by the
Department.''.
(b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of sections at the
beginning of such chapter is amended by adding at the end the
following new item:
``714. Record of reprimands and admonishments.''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Ohio (Mr. Wenstrup) and the gentlewoman from Nevada (Ms. Titus) each
will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Ohio.
General Leave
Mr. WENSTRUP. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and
add extraneous material on H.R. 1038.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Ohio?
There was no objection.
Mr. WENSTRUP. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, currently, if a VA employee is either reprimanded or
admonished for their performance, all records of those administrative
punishments are removed from the employee's personnel file within 3
years and 2 years, respectively. Subsequent to the removal of these
personnel actions, there is no record of their poor performance or acts
regardless of how many different jobs they hold within the VA or how
long they remain a VA employee.
Mr. Speaker, personnel policies and rules such as we are addressing
today are part of the culture of no accountability at the Department of
Veterans Affairs that have contributed significantly to the recent
public scandals. The list of scandals now includes the abuse of the
purchase card program where some VA employees were spending $5 billion
annually on goods and services without contracts, which was exposed at
the Veterans' Affairs Committee hearings last Thursday.
Mr. Speaker, it is time to ensure that only the most ethical and most
qualified employees who benefit from the tax dollars that support them
move up through the ranks at VA. One way to assist that is to retain an
employee's entire history in their personnel file. Now, no one is
saying that employees can't improve their performance after being
reprimanded or admonished, but managers should know the complete
history of their staff or potential staff members.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
[[Page H3260]]
Ms. TITUS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I, too, rise in support of H.R. 1038, the Ensuring VA
Employee Accountability Act of 2015.
Currently, when a VA employee is reprimanded for misconduct, the
paperwork describing the incident is removed from that employee's file
after 3 years. Paperwork describing an incident leading to an
admonishment is taken out after just 2 years. H.R. 1038 requires the
Secretary to maintain all written reprimands and admonishments of any
VA employee in that employee's file for the entire duration of his or
her employment at VA.
As members of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee work to ensure
effective oversight of VA actions, it is important to maintain a record
of VA employees' past misconduct. At the same time we are working
toward greater accountability, we must also ensure that increased
transparency does not come at the expense of fairness and the equitable
treatment of VA employees.
Mr. Speaker, I look forward to working with my colleagues and all
interested parties to clarify the intent of this legislation to ensure
that we are not inadvertently affecting the use of negotiated
settlement agreements when appropriate and that admonishments and
reprimands are not wrongly used to silence whistleblowers.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
{time} 1615
Mr. WENSTRUP. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Pennsylvania (Mr. Costello), the author of this bill.
Mr. COSTELLO of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to come
before you today to speak on behalf of this commonsense effort to
ensure greater employee accountability within the Department of
Veterans Affairs.
We all agree that our veterans deserve the best service and care
possible, and it is our responsibility to ensure that that care is
provided by responsible employees.
My legislation, H.R. 1038, Ensuring VA Employee Accountability Act,
is a further step in this direction. As you know, the VA carries out
their disciplinary actions in a tiered system, and the two most
commonly used are the lower-tiered actions, admonishments and
reprimands.
As the VA continues to review the findings of the recent inspector
general's investigations related to data manipulation, backlogs, and
excessive wait times, it is apparent that a greater number of
admonishments and reprimands are being issued to at-fault employees.
However, in the current policy, these disciplinary actions remain in
an employee's file for only 3 years and are then deleted. This prevents
the keeping of complete employee files and doesn't allow the poor
performers within the VA to be tracked or held accountable.
Veterans expect the correct disciplinary action to be administered--
indeed, all taxpayers do--and not simply the issuance of a temporary
written warning. Therefore, as the VA continues to issue these lower-
tier disciplinary actions more heavily than others, it is important
that the personnel actions remain in the employee's record while
employed at the VA.
My bill requires all reprimands and admonishments remain in a VA
employee's file as long as they are employed at the VA, ensuring that
the VA maintains good, complete employee records and holds those who
care for our veterans accountable.
There are some concerns that this legislation could negatively impact
flexibility in resolving routine personnel disputes, but there is
nothing in this bill that imposes new employee penalties or would
affect the existing process for a VA employee to appeal a disciplinary
action.
We are open to working with our Senate counterparts to ensure that
nothing in this legislation prevents a VA employee's ability to dispute
a disciplinary action before a reprimand or admonishment is placed in
their record. It is simply another tool for the Secretary to hold
employees accountable during their tenure at the VA.
Mr. Speaker, I hope my colleagues will support my legislation to
promote transparency and accountability where it is needed.
Ms. TITUS. Mr. Speaker, I commend Mr. Costello for his work on this
bill.
I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 1038 and to work with all of us
to make sure going forward that the intent of the bill is accurately
realized.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. WENSTRUP. Mr. Speaker, once again, I encourage all Members to
support H.R. 1038, and I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Wenstrup) that the House suspend the rules and
pass the bill, H.R. 1038.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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