A controversial Department of Veterans Affairs authorizing bill was watered down just before passing the Senate committee Thursday afternoon.
The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee held a mark-up session on the bill in the halls of Capitol Hill before passing the omnibus legislation in an off-the-floor vote, a source familiar with the situation said.
Arizona Sen. John McCain had railed against the Veterans First Act last week, calling the measure “very, very bad” because it did not go far enough in removing barriers to firing VA executives who misbehave.
The bill that passed the Republican-controlled Senate committee Thursday had 25 Democratic cosponsors to just eight Republican ones.
A provision intended to limit taxpayer-funded bonuses to VA officials was quietly removed from the version of the Veterans First Act that was released just hours before the vote, leaving little time for objection from concerned lawmakers.
Under current law, the VA is prohibited from handing out more than $360 million in employee bonuses each year.
But the new provision would have brought that ceiling down to $300 million a year by 2017.
A spokeswoman for the Senate VA Committee said the bonus cap was removed after a Congressional Budget Office assessment found the VA already spends less than $300 million annually on employee bonuses, rendering the new limit unnecessary. She said the vote took place off the floor because the room had been booked for the proposed time of the hearing and noted the practice of holding a vote just off the floor is common.
The VA has come under fire in recent years for doling out bonuses to its executives amid allegations of severe mistreatment of veterans at VA facilities around the country.
After a draft version of the Veterans First Act was leaked to the federal employees’ union last month, the union countered with a series of demands for changes that would weaken the accountability measures in the legislation. A subsequent draft of the bill that was announced before the Senate recess did not contain many of the provisions that union leaders found objectionable.
Republican lawmakers have criticized Sen. Johnny Isakson, who chairs the Senate VA Committee, for slow-walking negotiations over the omnibus legislation in order to reach a deal with the Obama administration.
In late March, Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Jeff Miller, who chairs the House Veterans Affairs Committee, urged Isakson to include robust accountability measures in the final version of the bill, arguing any bill that does not ease the process of firing VA employees would “miss the true mark on what ails the Department.”
The VA has struggled to rid its ranks of officials who participated in a nationwide effort to conceal long delays in healthcare by creating fake patient waiting lists at 110 VA facilities.
Dan Caldwell, vice president of legislative action at Concerned Veterans for America, said the Veterans Affairs Act “does not do nearly enough to address the systemic problems at the Department of Veterans Affairs.”
“The VA is still plagued by almost-daily stories of misconduct, and unfortunately the accountability portion of the Veterans First Act leaves in place too many loopholes that could be exploited to delay or block adverse actions against employees guilty of such misconduct,” Caldwell said in a statement. “This legislation also creates various new programs, offices and initiatives, but we believe these will only create more bureaucracy and financial waste at the department.”
Senate VA Republicans argued the bill was constructed as a compromise to make it through the committee and said the legislation still contained many of the reforms GOP lawmakers set out to accomplish.
