Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) employees will not be able to wipe bad behavior from their records for much longer if a Pennsylvania Republican congressman has his way.
The House of Representatives approved a bill Tuesday that requires all reprimands and admonishments given to VA employees must stay on their personnel records permanently. The Ensuring VA Accountability Act was introduced by Rep. Ryan Costello. Costello’s bill is aimed at VA’s current policy, which expunges any censure on employee records after two or three years.
“The reason I introduced this legislation is simple. It allows [VA] to maintain accurate records of disciplinary actions against employees,” Costello said in a statement. “The file can then be taken into consideration when an employee is up for a bonus or promotion. My bill is intended to bring more transparency and accountability to the way we serve our veterans.”
The VA defines an admonishment as a written statement of censure given to an employee for a minor act of misconduct, and a reprimand as a written statement of censure given to an employee for more serious conduct. An admonishment currently disappears from a person’s record after two years, and a reprimand after three years.
The Senate, where two related bills have been introduced, must still get one of them to the Senate floor and pass it for the legislation to become law after receiving a presidential signature.
President-elect Donald Trump, who has yet to finalize his VA secretary pick, promised to make reforming the VA a top priority. (RELATED: VA Employs $5 Million To Leave Instead Of Firing Them.)
Costello’s proposal follows multiple stories published in recent months by The Daily Caller News Foundation documenting dozens of examples of VA employee misconduct, including:
- A VA worker in Puerto Rico lost her job but got it back after pleading guilty to armed robbery.
- Four employees at a VA hospital in Florida dropped off a dead veteran’s body in a shower and left it there for nine hours before trying to cover up what they’d done.
- Some registered sex offenders list VA hospitals as their address of employment.
The VA employed 324,639 people in 2015, the most recently available data from the Office of Personnel Management.
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