Spending Bill May Be Next Shoe to Drop

One sign of how widely the fallout from the VA scandal will spread could come in the main annual spending bill covering federal employment programs, the financial services-general government bill, which the House plans to start drafting this week. That has been used numerous times in the past to set policies that are then continued as a routine matter from year to year–for example by cracking down on conferences after the reports finding wasteful spending at several agencies a few years ago. One possibility is incorporating a bill the House recently passed with bipartisan support denying performance awards to managers—and building a disciplinary case against them—who fail to carry out duties assigned to them following inspector general investigations. Another idea that has bipartisan support, at least in the Senate, would require the firing of employees who are seriously delinquent on their federal taxes, unless they are making payments under a settlement. Under yet another proposal with bipartisan Senate support, employees subject to a suspension or more serious disciplinary action would be ineligible for an award for five years and would have to repay any received within the past five years. Also, some House Republicans have called for ending the practice of official time at VA—on the clock time used by employees on union business—in order to free up more resources for direct patient care; that idea too could be attached to the government-wide spending bill.