The House approved a bill Wednesday aimed at making it easier for the Department of Veterans Affairs to fire employees for misconduct or poor performance — a source of ongoing tension with the Obama administration.
(FOX)- The Republican-sponsored bill was approved, 310-116. Sixty-nine Democrats and 241 Republicans voted for the bill.
It would shorten the time employees are given to respond to proposed discipline or firing and would eliminate a provision that allows senior executives to appeal disciplinary actions to an independent review board.
GOP lawmakers have been urging the VA to fire more workers as a key step to improving the scandal-plagued agency.
House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller said a “pervasive lack of accountability among employees at all levels” is “the biggest obstacle standing in the way of VA reform.”
The House bill is the latest in a series of efforts by lawmakers to respond to a two-year-old scandal over chronic delays for veterans seeking medical care, and falsified records covering up the long waits. Veterans on secret waiting lists faced scheduling delays of up to a year, and as many as 40 veterans died while awaiting care at the Phoenix VA hospital in Arizona, according to an investigation by the VA’s inspector general.
Similar problems were soon discovered at VA medical centers nationwide, affecting thousands of veterans and prompting an outcry in Congress.
Miller, R-Fla., said reform efforts “are doomed to fail” until the problem of employee accountability is fixed.