[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 1]
[House]
[Pages 59-61]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                ENSURING VA EMPLOYEE ACCOUNTABILITY ACT

  Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and 
pass the bill (H.R. 27) 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.

[[Page 60]]

  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                                H.R. 27

       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. 719. 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:

``719. Record of reprimands and admonishments.''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Tennessee (Mr. Roe) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Takano) each 
will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Tennessee.


                             General Leave

  Mr. ROE of Tennessee. 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.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Tennessee?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 27, the Ensuring VA 
Employee Accountability Act.
  Mr. Speaker, one of my top priorities this Congress as the new 
chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs is to ensure we 
give the next Secretary of Veterans Affairs the tools he or she will 
need to swiftly and effectively discipline poor-performing employees at 
the VA.
  I firmly believe that all other needed reforms are destined to fail 
if we don't help VA managers who are trapped in an antiquated civil 
service system to do their job.
  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 for a reprimand and 2 years for an admonishment.

                              {time}  1745

  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 in the VA or how long they remain a VA 
employee.
  Mr. Speaker, personnel policies and rules such as those we are 
addressing today permit a culture at the Department of Veterans Affairs 
that allows the misdeeds of a few to overshadow the good work done by 
the vast majority of VA employees. It is time we ensure that only the 
most ethical and qualified employees advance and retain positions of 
trust and service to veterans. One way to help advance that goal is to 
require VA to retain an employee's entire history in their personnel 
file, as H.R. 27 would do.
  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 hires when they are 
determining who is best qualified for any given position. This is a 
commonsense reform that I hope we can all support.
  As a reminder to my colleagues old and new, the bill before us today 
is identical to H.R. 1038, which passed the House during the 114th 
Congress. That bill, like this one, was introduced by my friend from 
Pennsylvania, Mr. Costello. I thank him again for reintroducing this 
needed legislation, and I thank the majority leader and others for 
scheduling this important bill on the first day of the 115th Congress. 
I think it sends a message to our veterans that instilling a culture of 
accountability at VA is, and will remain, among our highest priorities. 
I urge all of my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 27.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume, 
and I rise in support of the Ensuring VA Employee Accountability Act of 
2017.
  This bill requires VA to keep a permanent copy of an admonishment or 
reprimand in a VA employee's personnel file. Currently, an informal 
admonishment remains on a VA employee's record for 2 years, while a 
more serious written reprimand stays in the file for more than 3 years.
  Maintaining a comprehensive record of VA employees' personnel files 
will allow VA managers to track their employees' improvement, or lack 
thereof, related to the specific problem addressed in the original 
complaint. This approach will increase transparency, allow VA managers 
to address problematic performance, and give VA employees a chance to 
improve.
  Although I support this bill, I want to address concerns raised by 
the American Federation of Government Employees and include this letter 
in the Congressional Record.

         American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO,
                                                  January 3, 2017.
     Re H.R. 27, Ensuring VA Employee Accountability Act

       Dear Representative: On behalf of the American Federation 
     of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents nearly 
     700,000 federal employees, including 230,000 non-management 
     employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), I 
     strongly urge you to oppose H.R. 27, the Ensuring VA 
     Employees Accountability Act. The bill is scheduled for floor 
     consideration this week under suspension of the rules.
       This bill would deprive every VA employee, including non-
     managerial employees, of the chance to clear his or her name 
     after receiving an unjustified reprimand from a manager who 
     is acting out of incompetence, bias, anti-veteran animus or 
     whistleblower retaliation.
       H.R. 27 would not increase accountability for VA 
     mismanagement. However, it would deprive the 115,000 veterans 
     in the VA workforce of the record expungement rights they had 
     as military personnel. It would also deprive veterans in the 
     VA workforce, and all VA employees, of second chances after 
     they receive reprimands or admonishments early in their 
     careers. If this bill is enacted, VA employees will no longer 
     have any rights to expunge their personnel files even if the 
     reprimands or admonishments were placed in their files 
     decades ago.
       In addition, this bill would have an adverse impact on 
     agency operations and the VA's ability to recruit and retain 
     a strong workforce. It would divert precious VA resources 
     away from caring for veterans through an increase in wasteful 
     litigation because the bill eliminates the use of an 
     extremely efficient tool for settling personnel matters 
     through Clear Record Settlement Agreements (CRAs).
       CRAs give VA managers the flexibility to resolve routine 
     personnel disputes efficiently and quickly without protracted 
     litigation or destruction of the VA careers of front line 
     employees, including large numbers of service-connected 
     disabled veterans who provide medical care, clean operating 
     rooms, process benefit claims, police VA facilities, and set 
     cemetery headstones. The Merit Systems Protection Board 
     (MSPB) stated in its 2013 report, Clear Record Settlement 
     Agreements and the Law, that 95% of agency representatives 
     resolved disputes using negotiated settlement agreements 
     (NSAs) and 89% of these agreements involved CRAs.
       Congress has received a great deal of testimony in recent 
     years from brave whistleblowers and their labor 
     representatives regarding the widespread management abuse of 
     reprimands to punish employees and destroy their VA careers. 
     Similarly, Congress has provided steadfast support to active 
     duty personnel making the often-difficult transition to 
     civilian employment, including VA support in the form of 
     vocational rehabilitation, compensated work therapy, PTSD 
     treatment, and programs to address homelessness and substance 
     abuse.
       H.R. 27 is at best ambiguous about the fate of veterans who 
     leave VA employment for deployment and then seek to return to 
     the VA workforce. Would reprimands that were placed in their 
     personnel files prior to deployment still be visible to all 
     potential VA employers reviewing the returning veteran's 
     application?
       In closing, AFGE urges lawmakers to reject this 
     counterproductive assault on VA front line employees who are, 
     too often, unfairly reprimanded by hostile, unsupportive

[[Page 61]]

     and incompetent managers and human resources personnel.
       Thank you for considering our views on this bill.
           Sincerely,
                                                     Marilyn Park,
                                       Legislative Representative.

  Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I share these concerns and intend to work 
with my colleagues across the aisle and in the Senate to ensure that if 
this bill passes into law, the change will not adversely impact 
whistleblowers, the thousands of veterans employed by the VA, and the 
VA employees who work hard every day to support the needs of our 
Nation's veterans.
  Whistleblowers and employees who face unlawful retaliation from 
managers should have the opportunity to clear their names before any 
proposed admonishments or reprimands are made permanent in their 
records. I also want to clarify that this bill should not be used to 
eliminate the VA's ability to enter into clear record settlement 
agreements with employees or get in the way of resolving personnel 
matters in an efficient manner.
  In our efforts to enhance personnel policies at the VA, it is 
important that we remember that one-third of VA employees are veterans 
themselves, and many more have immediate family members who are 
veterans. Many of these employees are also hardworking doctors and 
nurses who want to provide quality care for their patients. These 
Federal civil servants want to do a good job in order to provide 
veterans the best possible service, and this bill should not be used by 
managers to intimidate or retaliate against these employees.
  This bill simply requires VA to maintain a complete record of a VA 
employee's personnel file, a practice intended to increase transparency 
and ultimately improve outcomes for veterans.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman 
from Pennsylvania (Mr. Costello), a very active member of the Committee 
on Veterans' Affairs and my good friend.
  Mr. COSTELLO of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, as we all are well aware, 
today begins a new session of Congress, with a new opportunity to chart 
a promising path for the future direction of our country.
  While many Americans across the country remain very frustrated with 
what they feel is a giant, unresponsive bureaucracy that is not working 
for them, all Americans want to see VA care and services implemented 
properly.
  Last session, Mr. Speaker, this Congress did make some reasonable 
progress legislatively to bring about reforming the VA, but more needs 
to be done. Some of our legislation which passed the House died in the 
Senate.
  The bill I introduced and rise in support of today, the Ensuring VA 
Employee Accountability Act, is important for the following reasons: 
the bill requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to maintain an up-
to-date file of employee disciplinary actions throughout each 
employee's tenure at the VA.
  Under current VA policy, disciplinary actions remain in an employee's 
file for only 3 years before they are deleted, preventing poor 
performers within the VA from being tracked or held accountable over 
the long term. This bill will ensure a complete record is kept and 
evaluated when a VA employee is considered for bonuses, promotions, or 
other career advancement.
  I also want to be clear about this. This bill is fair to all VA 
employees, and a great many VA employees do very, very good work in 
caring for our veterans. This bill does not impose any new employee 
penalties or affect the existing due process rights for a VA employee 
to appeal a disciplinary action in any manner whatsoever.
  The goal is simply to ensure our veterans are receiving the best 
possible care from our government and that these employees who do wrong 
or perform poorly do not have it swept under the rug and then disappear 
after a few years.
  I thank the staff on the Committee on Veterans' Affairs for their 
work on this bill, especially Jon Clark and Kelsey Baron, and look 
forward to the leadership of Chairman Roe in this session of Congress.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
  Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, once again, I encourage all 
Members to support this legislation.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Roe) that the House suspend the rules and 
pass the bill, H.R. 27.
  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.

                          ____________________