The House is expected to vote on a bill as early as Monday night that would allow the Department of Veterans Affairs to take back bonuses and awards it has already paid to its employees.
According to a Washington Post report, the bill
is
part of a push to clean up the scandal-plagued VA in the wake of several problems involving the care of patients, falsified waiting lists to see a doctor, and the condition of VA facilities.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the VA hands out somewhere around $400 million in awards and bonuses each year, $4 million of which goes to senior staff members.
The proposed bill would grant the VA, under Secretary Robert McDonald, the power to recoup some of the money that's already been given out.
The CBO report says the department would likely seek to reclaim funds only from senior-level employees "who were determined to have committed a serious violation of the agency's standards of conduct."
Further, the bill would only apply to current VA employees. People who have either resigned or were fired would not be subject to the policy.
If an employee is subject to recoup policy, he or she would receive notice from the VA, according to the bill. The employee would be eligible for an appeal hearing but once a decision is made, it would be final.
McDonald claimed last month that 60 VA employees had been fired stemming from the public scandal that clouded the agency's image last year, but other
reports showed only 11 employees had been terminated.
Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla.,
said in January he would like to see employees involved in the scandal be ordered to pay back any bonuses they received.
"Ideally, VA employees and executives who collected bonuses under false pretenses should be subject to prosecution when warranted, but at a minimum their bonuses should be paid back in full," Miller said at the time.
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