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House Passes Legislation Allowing VA Secretary to More Easily Fire Employees

Yesterday, the House passed the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Accountability Act of 2015, which would allow for the department secretary to more easily remove or demote the agency’s civil service employees guilty of misconduct or found to be incompetent.  The bill would also require that all probationary periods for new employees be extended from the current requirement of one year to at least 18 months. The secretary would also be able to strip pension benefits from department senior executives who are convicted of a crime that influenced their job performance. The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee approved similar legislation last week and floor action in the Senate is pending.

For more information, please contact Jimmy Christianson at christiansonj@agc.org or (703) 837-5325.