The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee has held hearings in preparation to advance a bill that would build on a law enacted last year restricting appeal rights of senior executives at the VA.
The bill (S-290) would bar the department from giving top ratings in the five-level SES performance appraisal system to more than 10 percent of executives and the second-highest to more than 20 percent. It also would require the department, with some exceptions allowed, to reassign SES members at least every five years to a position at a different location that does not include the supervision of the same personnel or programs, and require an outside review of management training programs for the SES there.
The measure further would require the reduction of annuities of SES members if they are convicted of a felony that influenced their performance on the job, regardless of whether they were fired or left the department before being disciplined. That would be done by reducing the service time they are credited with in their annuity calculations.
Also, the department generally could not put an executive on any type of paid non-duty status for more than 14 days in a year, for disciplinary or other purposes.
