{"id":29502,"date":"2018-07-17T20:34:19","date_gmt":"2018-07-17T20:34:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/07\/17\/va-union-leaders-spar-over-impact-of-new-accountability-law\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T20:55:56","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T20:55:56","slug":"va-union-leaders-spar-over-impact-of-new-accountability-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/veterans\/2018\/07\/17\/va-union-leaders-spar-over-impact-of-new-accountability-law\/","title":{"rendered":"VA, union leaders spar over impact of new accountability law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 Veterans Affairs leaders say <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2017\/06\/23\/trump-signs-va-accountability-measure-into-law\/\" target=_blank>new accountability rules passed last summer<\/a> are already beginning to reform the culture throughout the federal bureaucracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/veterans\/2017\/10\/17\/federal-union-slams-va-health-reforms-as-dangerous-for-vets\/\" target=_blank>Union officials<\/a> insist the measure has created a haphazard mess at the department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe Accountability Act has proven to be one of the most misguided and counterproductive VA laws ever enacted,\u201d said J. David Cox Sr., national president of the American Federation of Government Employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt has demoralized and harmed its dedicated workforce \u2026 It has deprived veterans who depend on the VA for health care and benefits of the services of employees with extensive training and experience who have been fired under the Act\u2019s new authorities without a fair chance to improve their performance or defend their jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/veterans\/2018\/01\/03\/va-firings-spiked-after-trump-signed-the-new-accountability-law-last-year\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP_17174611959779.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">VA firings spiked after Trump signed the new accountability law last year<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Firings rose almost 80 percent in the second half of 2017. But critics warn more dismissals don\u2019t necessarily mean better results for veterans.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The measure, signed into law just over a year ago, has been hailed repeatedly over the last year by conservatives on Capitol Hill and White House officials as a key tool in fixing VA, and was a major applause line for President Donald Trump in his<a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/veterans\/2018\/01\/31\/va-reveals-hundreds-of-additional-firings-following-trumps-state-of-the-union\/\" target=\"_blank\"> State of the Union speech<\/a> in January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Among other provisions, the legislation \u2014 passed with bipartisan support \u2014 shortened the appeal time for VA employees protesting their dismissals and expanded VA leadership\u2019s ability to remove most workers, including senior executives, for misconduct or poor performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, those changes and the creation of VA\u2019s new Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection as the basis of a broader push by Trump for federal service reforms which critics have blasted as his latest attack on federal workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Acting VA Secretary Peter O\u2019Rouke, however, told reporters on Capitol Hill Tuesday that he sees the work as a model for cultural change throughout government agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Earlier in the day, he brushed off criticism from Democrats on the House Veterans\u2019 Affairs Committee that the legislation has largely resulted in the firing of lower-level workers, not managers who set policies and would have a larger impact on office reforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So far in 2018, 1,171 VA workers have been fired, demoted or suspended. Of those, fewer than 20 have been senior managers. Nearly half the total comes from food service workers, nursing assistants and housekeepers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But O\u2019Rouke said the percentage of general worker firings has remained steady in recent years (before passage of the new accountability law) and dismissed concerns about specific firing and turnover figures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe intent of the law was not to go fire low-level employees,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was to improve accountability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt does take leaders to show what are the right things to do. That\u2019s going to take time to get down to our housekeepers and everyone who does work at the point of service. But we\u2019re seeing the change now at the higher levels, and we\u2019ll see that continue to work throughout the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cox said he doesn\u2019t believe that is happening. AFGE officials have been critical of Trump and VA for blaming systemic problems on low-level workers, and have said those attacks are hurting the morale and quality of the workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhen you have fear in an organization, you never have the best performance,\u201d Cox said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Both Republicans and Democrats on the committee expressed concerns about a lack of consistent, formal procedures for complaints filed through the new office. The issue has been a point of contention between VA leaders and the VA inspector general in recent weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">O\u2019Rourke acknowledged the issue \u2014 \u201cnew rules, everybody is trying to figure it out\u201d \u2014 but also insisted that the message of accountability is spreading throughout the department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis law is appropriate in that it gives us the tools that we need at VA to address accountability,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we have very strong agreement among the administration and Congress that whistleblower protection is very important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cPutting that together with accountability is going to give us the results, eventually, that we need at VA to make sure we are serving veterans the way we need to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">This morning\u2019s full committee hearing on the implementation of the VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act begins at 10:30 a.m. Stream it here: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/yY6nrFi09g\">https:\/\/t.co\/yY6nrFi09g<\/a><\/p>&mdash; House Committee on Veterans&#39; Affairs (@HouseVetAffairs) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/HouseVetAffairs\/status\/1019219039233724416?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 17, 2018<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Administration officials have repeatedly hailed the measure, but critics call it demoralizing and unfair to lower-level VA employees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":45978,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":21,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["veterans","news"],"primary_category":"veterans"},"5":{"categories":["veterans","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"veterans"},"6":{"categories":["veterans","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"veterans"},"7":{"categories":["veterans","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"veterans"},"8":{"categories":["management","acquisition-update","newsletters","home","daily-brief"],"primary_category":"management"}}},"categories":[101,16,26,21],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3328],"class_list":["post-29502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-news","category-newsletters","category-veterans"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"C3DOX72P7BHQTHBY4V6H4ROLJA","arc_canonical_url":"\/veterans\/2018\/07\/17\/va-union-leaders-spar-over-impact-of-new-accountability-law\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>VA, union leaders spar over impact of new accountability law - Air Force TImes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Administration officials have repeatedly hailed the measure, but critics call it demoralizing and unfair to lower-level VA employees.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"VA, union leaders spar over impact of new accountability law\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Administration officials have repeatedly hailed the measure, but critics call it demoralizing and unfair to lower-level VA employees.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" 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