The House has passed, although not by a wide enough margin to overcome a threatened White House veto, HR-1994, which would limit appeal rights of all VA employees, among other steps. That bill, like several others that have been advancing in both chambers in response to the VA patient scheduling and care scandal, is widely seen as setting a potential precedent for broader application across all agencies. Under the bill, VA employees would have a standard probationary period of 18 months rather than 12, would have only seven days rather than the standard 30 to challenge disciplinary actions before the MSPB, would have no further right to appeal beyond the hearing officer’s decision, and the agency’s action would stand by default if a decision wasn’t within 45 days. The bill further would limit paid leave for employees facing disciplinary action, enhance certain whistleblower protections, mandate discipline of those who retaliate against whistleblowers including required firing for a second offense, require rotation of VA senior executive employees every five years and allow only 10 percent to be rated at the top level each year. The White House objected that those provisions would make the VA a less attractive employer. The vote in favor was a mostly partisan 256-170, leaving in question the prospects of that legislation and a companion bill in the Senate. One option would be to break out some of the less controversial provisions, such as the enhanced whistleblower protections, and consider them separately. Other proposals pending include limits on VA’s ability to pay employee awards and requirements that employees repay awards already paid if they are found to have committed certain types of misconduct. The White House has not threatened to veto those bills but similar logic could apply to them, as well. Meanwhile, the Senate passed S-242, under which newly hired employees with a veterans’ disability rating of 30 percent or more would be allowed to use a full year’s worth of sick leave in their first year of work for appointments related to that condition.