{"id":83889,"date":"2025-01-17T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-17T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2025\/01\/17\/lawmakers-again-push-to-ease-firing-rules-for-misbehaving-va-staff\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T16:39:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T16:39:42","slug":"lawmakers-again-push-to-ease-firing-rules-for-misbehaving-va-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2025\/01\/17\/lawmakers-again-push-to-ease-firing-rules-for-misbehaving-va-staff\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawmakers again push to ease firing rules for misbehaving VA staff"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">House and Senate Republican leaders introduced legislation this week designed to make it easier to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2024\/05\/22\/gop-senators-demand-firings-of-senior-staff-after-va-bonus-mistakes\/\" target=\"_blank\">discipline and fire Veterans Affairs employees<\/a>, reviving a<a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/veterans\/2018\/01\/03\/va-firings-spiked-after-trump-signed-the-new-accountability-law-last-year\/\" target=\"_blank\"> priority of President Donald Trump\u2019s first term in office<\/a> just before his second term begins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Restore VA Accountability Act is sponsored by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2025\/01\/13\/new-senate-vet-affairs-chair-plans-focus-on-care-access-mental-health\/\" target=\"_blank\">Senate Veterans\u2019 Affairs Committee Chairman Jerry Moran<\/a>, R-Kansas, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/veterans\/2023\/02\/02\/new-house-vets-chair-plans-focus-on-pact-act-oversight-medical-access\/\" target=\"_blank\">House Veterans\u2019 Affairs Committee Chairman Mike Bost<\/a>, R-Ill., indicating it could be among the first major pieces of veterans policy approved this session of Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a statement, Moran said the legislation is needed to \u201chelp make certain that veterans receive the high-quality care and benefits they\u2019ve earned and VA staff have the healthy workplace they deserve.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bost echoed that sentiment as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cTime and time again, we saw bad VA employees who don\u2019t have veterans\u2019 best interests at heart just reshuffled to another part of the agency,\u201d he said in a statement. \u201cThat has a direct impact on not only veterans, but the mission of VA and the employees who are trying to do their jobs well.\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 issue of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2015\/12\/09\/va-accountability-means-more-than-just-firing-people\/\" target=\"_blank\">accountability<\/a> was a major focus early in Trump\u2019s previous term, with Congress approving legislation in 2017 giving senior department leaders special authority to demote or fire employees based on misconduct or poor performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trump touted the measure in his 2018 State of the Union address, claiming <a href=\"https:\/\/www.armytimes.com\/veterans\/2018\/01\/31\/va-reveals-hundreds-of-additional-firings-following-trumps-state-of-the-union\/\" target=\"_blank\">more than 1,500 firings at the agency<\/a> in the first few months of the bill. However, VA officials said almost half of that total was made up of probationary employees with typically high turnover rates, and did not clarify whether the rest would have been dismissed under the old rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the years that followed, many provisions of the 2017 accountability laws were successfully challenged in court, and eventually abandoned by department leaders. Current VA officials have repeatedly insisted that they have the tools needed to properly deal with problematic workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But conservative lawmakers have disagreed, and have pushed for ways to diminish union protections and provide faster responses to reports of staffing problems, especially criminal charges leveled against department workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The new bill would get rid of federal requirements for a performance improvement plan prior to any employee disciplinary action and \u201cunlock expedited removal, demotion, or suspension authority for use with all categories of VA employees,\u201d according to a summary provided by the committees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It would also update the appeals process in an effort to ensure that decisions \u201csupported by substantial evidence\u201d are upheld. That has been a major point of contention in the past, with courts frequently rejecting VA leaders\u2019 reasoning for firings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe intent of [this bill] is to hold that 1% of bad VA employees accountable,\u201d Bost said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The measure has received initial backing from a number of veterans organizations, including the Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion and National Guard Association of the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Whether Democrats will also lend support to the effort is unclear. The 2017 bill did receive some bipartisan support, but party leaders have accused Republicans of using the accountability issue as a way to weaken union protections among federal workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No timeline has been set for hearings or votes on the new measure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Punishing underperforming VA workers was a priority during Trump&#8217;s first term. Congressional leaders want to zero in on the problem again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":38040,"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":68,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[100,7,23,12,25,68,19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3334],"class_list":["post-83889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-education-transition","category-home","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pentagon-congress","category-veterans"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"QYZHHNZZKNAYRP42DBWHNCVIYY","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2025\/01\/17\/lawmakers-again-push-to-ease-firing-rules-for-misbehaving-va-staff\/","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>Lawmakers again push to ease firing rules for misbehaving VA staff - Army Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Punishing underperforming VA workers was a priority during Trump&#039;s first term. 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Congressional leaders want to zero in on the problem again.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2025\/01\/17\/lawmakers-again-push-to-ease-firing-rules-for-misbehaving-va-staff\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Army Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-01-17T15:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-08T16:39:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Leo Shane III\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Leo Shane III\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\n\t    \"@context\": \"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\n\t    \"@graph\": [\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"Article\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/armytimes\\\/news\\\/pentagon-congress\\\/2025\\\/01\\\/17\\\/lawmakers-again-push-to-ease-firing-rules-for-misbehaving-va-staff\\\/#article\",\n\t            \"isPartOf\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/armytimes\\\/news\\\/pentagon-congress\\\/2025\\\/01\\\/17\\\/lawmakers-again-push-to-ease-firing-rules-for-misbehaving-va-staff\\\/\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"author\": {\n\t                \"name\": \"migration\",\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/armytimes\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/cc76c831bb37a926738c8391fca7a3b1\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"headline\": \"Lawmakers again push to ease firing rules for misbehaving VA staff\",\n\t            \"datePublished\": \"2025-01-17T15:00:00+00:00\",\n\t            \"dateModified\": \"2026-08-08T16:39:42+00:00\",\n\t            \"mainEntityOfPage\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/armytimes\\\/news\\\/pentagon-congress\\\/2025\\\/01\\\/17\\\/lawmakers-again-push-to-ease-firing-rules-for-misbehaving-va-staff\\\/\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"wordCount\": 534,\n\t            \"commentCount\": 0,\n\t            \"publisher\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/armytimes\\\/#organization\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"image\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/armytimes\\\/news\\\/pentagon-congress\\\/2025\\\/01\\\/17\\\/lawmakers-again-push-to-ease-firing-rules-for-misbehaving-va-staff\\\/#primaryimage\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"thumbnailUrl\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/Union-protest.JPG-1.jpg\",\n\t            \"articleSection\": [\n\t                \"Daily News Roundup\",\n\t                \"Education &amp; 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