A letter from a group of Senate Democrats questioning the VA’s use of its enhanced disciplinary policies–which some of its signers had voted for just last year–could hamper a move to extend similar authorities to other individual agencies or government-wide.
The VA-specific law has been seen as setting a potential precedent for wider application. The Trump administration’s budget plan and its President’s Management Agenda both called for more management-friendly disciplinary practices, although they did not make detailed proposals. Bills recently offered in the House HR-4702 and HR-4703 would extend similar disciplinary policies to the Education and Labor departments, respectively.
However, opposition from only a small number of Democrats would be enough to bar such legislation from clearing the Senate.
Under the law, VA employees have only 10 work days to respond internally to notices of proposed discipline and the department must make a final decision within 15 work days regardless of whether the employee responds. Also, employees have only 10 work days to appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board, where a hearing officer would have a 180-day deadline to decide a case; both the hearing officer and the full board on an appeal would have to side with the agency if only “substantial” evidence–not the majority of it, as required generally in performance-related discipline–supported the agency’s position; and neither could lessen the choice of penalty, only affirm or reject it in total.