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House Veterans Affairs Committee
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A recent Government Accountability Office report on the Veterans Affairs Department and its employees' use of official time is renewing a debate among lawmakers: Does official time have a place within agency operations, and how much time is too much?
February 16, 2017 -
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The Government Accountability Office had some hard truths for the Veterans Affairs Department, which has failed to produce more modern, interoperable IT systems after years of failed pilots and heated congressional hearings. GAO says VA should drop its plans to modernize VistA and find a commercial option instead.
February 07, 2017 -
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Veterans service organizations and the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents roughly 230,000 employees at the Veterans Affairs Department, say the President-elect's nominee to lead the agency is a pleasant surprise. Dr. David Shulkin, the current VA undersecretary for health, should give the agency some continuity during the transition, they said.
January 12, 2017 -
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Veterans Affairs Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson wrote to Congress this week, asking that it begin work immediately to repeal cuts to the agency's award and incentive spending. Congress cut VA's performance bonus budget by about 20 percent next year to cover opioid-addiction treatment programs for veterans.
December 22, 2016 -
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Leadership is changing in six congressional committees with jurisdictions that could affect the way feds do business governmentwide.
December 13, 2016 -
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A new omnibus veterans package cleared the House Tuesday afternoon, but it doesn't address three controversial issues that both veterans affairs committees and the VA Secretary himself have spent the past year debating. That leaves a fix for the outdated veterans appeals process, an alternative or solution to the Veterans Choice Program and new accountability procedures to the 115th Congress and next administration.
December 06, 2016 -
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The House Veterans Affairs Committee wrote to the Justice Department, asking that DOJ investigate whether VA officials lied before Congress when they testified about ongoing schedule and cost overruns for new medical center in Denver. A new report from VA's inspector general slammed the department's leadership for making poor decisions about the hospital's construction that weren't in the best interest of the veterans they hope to serve.
September 23, 2016 -
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Several good government and oversight organizations, along with eight individual whistleblowers, wrote to House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) in support of the whistleblower protections included in the VA Accountability First and Appeals Modernization Act. But they had some tough criticism for the changes the bill would make to due process rights for VA executives.
September 16, 2016 -
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The Veterans Affairs Department paid roughly $5 million to some employees to settle disciplinary actions, according to House VA Committee Chairman Jeff Miller (R-Fla.). VA made 208 settlement agreements with employees between July 2014 and the present. The department used monetary payouts to settle 72 percent of those cases.
September 15, 2016 -
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The House is moving forward on a bill that would shorten the time in which Veterans Affairs employees and senior executives could appeal disciplinary actions and removals. The VA Accountability First and Appeals Modernization Act of 2016 also includes provisions that would change the veterans' appeals process, but the bill is drawing ire from the Obama administration, House Democrats and federal employee groups.
September 13, 2016 -
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In today's Top Federal Headlines, the White House releases this year's Federal Agency Strategic Sustainability Plans, providing a snapshot of the progress agencies have made becoming more environmentally friendly.
September 08, 2016 -
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The House Veterans Affairs Committee also discussed several of the recommendations from the VA Commission on Care's report. Lawmakers generally agreed with the majority of the 18 suggestions, but issues of leadership at the Veterans Health Administration will likely be the sticking point in future debates over VA transformation.
September 07, 2016 -
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The Obama administration said it agreed with most of the VA Commission on Care's recommendations to improve veterans health care, adding that the department had started efforts to implement many of them already. President Barack Obama said he disagreed with three of the 18 suggestions.
September 02, 2016 -
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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.
July 06, 2016
