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Today, Congressman Bob Latta (R-Bowling Green) joined his colleagues in passing S. 1094, the bipartisan Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act by a vote of 368-55. The legislation will now head to the President’s desk to be signed into law. S. 1094 reforms the agency and allows the VA Secretary to remove, demote, or suspend any VA employee for poor performance or misconduct. The legislation also contains a number of important whistleblower protections.
 
“Our nation’s veterans, who have made countless sacrifices for our country, deserve to have access to timely, quality care,” said Latta. “If a VA employee is not helping with the mission, either through misconduct or poor performance, than appropriate punitive action should be taken. Currently, there are far too many hoops to jump through to fire or punish misbehaving employees, and it’s veterans that are suffering the consequences. I look forward to the President signing this important piece of bipartisan legislation into law.”

According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), it takes six months to a year on average to remove federal employees, even for examples of malfeasance. In one particular case, a VA employee took a veteran off-site from a substance abuse clinic to buy illicit drugs. It took over a year for the VA to even begin procedures to remove the employee for clear misconduct. Senior VA officials have testified before Congress that it is often difficult to fire bad employees at the agency.

In addition, the legislation also establishes the Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection and creates a new assistant secretary position in charge of whistleblower protections and accountability. Employees that have come forward with examples of wrongdoing at the VA have faced retribution from supervisors, and S. 1094 would provide tools to ensure whistleblowers are able to disclose problems at the agency to higher-ups without fear of punishment.
 
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