Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin said Tuesday that legislation President Trump will sign today that makes it easier to fire VA employees represents a step the VA needs to take in order to bring accountability back to the troubled agency.
“I am not one to say that this accountability bill is absolutely perfect, but I am convinced that we need to take a different path. And I need as secretary, if I am going to change this organization, the ability to remove the employees that clearly in my view no longer should have the privilege of serving our veterans take a different path,” the secretary told reporters at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.
He stressed that this was a reform, not an elimination of the civil service protections. “This is not a move towards privatization,” he said. “This is doing what is right by our veterans.”
Trump is expected to sign the “Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act,” which would make it easier to fire VA employees for poor performance. These employees would be prohibited from getting bonuses or being compensated for being relocated; the latter change is the result of what many in Congress saw as a scam that let VA workers receive tens of thousands of dollars in relocation benefits, despite corrupt or negligent behavior. The legislation also would require the VA to evaluate supervisors on their ability to protect whistleblowers.
Shulkin said recent incidents at the department where the rules prevented him from terminating employees for cause showed that the changes were needed. He cited a case in which a psychiatrist was found to be watching pornography while treating a patient, and another in which an employee had been cited three times for DWI.
He rejected arguments that the reforms would hurt either recruiting or morale at the department. “There is nothing more demoralizing than working alongside people that everybody knows no longer shares the values, the morals, the values and the ethics of the vast majority of the people who go to work everyday,” he said.
As far as recruiting goes, Shulkin said the VA would be hiring from private healthcare sector, where civil service protections don’t exist. “I’m not trying to recruit from other agencies,” he said.
