[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 7073-7074]
[From the U.S. 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.
  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.

[[Page 7074]]

  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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