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In today's Top Federal Headlines, the House passes a bill to extend Veterans Affairs' expedited removal process for senior executives to all SES members and the VA Commission on Care releases its long list of recommendations for the agency....
The House passed a bill that would change the way agencies discipline and remove federal employees and members of the Senior Executive Service. One provision would put all SES members under the same, expedited disciplinary process that senior executives at the Veterans Affairs Department had until the Justice Department challenged its constitutionality.
Leaders at the Veterans Affairs Department pledge to Congress that the money and time they've been given to help overhaul the agency's IT systems will not be in vain.
Veteran preference is in the news again, with new legislation proposing new limits. Former Homeland Security Chief Human Capital Officer Jeff Neal says that's a big deal, becausey veteran preference is a kind of third rail of civil service reform.
Most of the attention focused on the Veterans Affairs Department in the last couple of years has had to do with firing people. Giving VA more flexibility to demote or get rid of people who perform poorly. But now a bill looks at something a little more positive: how to recruit and hire top talent at VA. Tim McManus, the vice president for education at the Partnership for Public Service has studied the bill, and joins Federal Drive with Tom Temin with analysis of H.R. 5526.
The Veterans Affairs Department says it’s earning back trust and confidence from the veterans it serves, and employee engagement within the department is also improving. This comes roughly 10 days before the VA Commission on Care is expected to pitch a major overhaul to the department’s health care and personnel systems.
Veterans Affairs Secretary Bob McDonald says Congress needs to support the agency through reform legislation and full funding if lawmakers want to see the transformation so many of them are calling for.
A recent decision from the Justice Department is prompting the VA to stop using the authority it has under current legislation to fire senior executives more quickly. The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee said the news comes after an inquiry over whether the VA planned to make any policy changes after the DOJ decision, which ultimately ruled that a key provision in the VA Choice Act is unconstitutional.
Danny Pummill, the acting undersecretary for benefits at the Veterans Affairs Department, is retiring, the agency announced June 16. Pummill had delayed his retirement to step into the role of acting undersecretary when the previous benefits director suddenly resigned last October.
Some documents related to veterans' disability claims are getting thrown out at Veterans Affairs regional offices, but the VA and its inspector general disagree whether the problem is a systemic issue or one that can be explained by human error.
The Interior Department's Office of Inspector General says the National Park Service is not properly handling employee mismanagement related to dozens of sexual harassment complaints, ethics violations and procurement misconduct.
The Army is deliberating how to handle non-deployable soldiers while studying soldiers' brain function and performance in the field.
The congressionally-appointed VA Commission on Care suggested a major overhaul to the Veterans Health Administration. According to the commission's draft report, due to Congress by the end of the month, VHA employees should have their own personnel system.
The Veterans Affairs Department officially fired three more senior leaders at the Phoenix VA Health Care System, the hospital where reports of wait time manipulation first started two years ago. Two of the three VA executives can appeal their removals to the Merit Systems Protection Board.