A key House Republican is looking to change the law so the Department of Veterans Affairs can recoup some of the millions of dollars in “relocation” benefits that its employees enjoy, which sometimes exceed $200,000.
Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., told the Washington Examiner that he believes the VA already has the authority to recoup some of these payments. “But we’re going to put it into law to make it crystal clear,” he said.
Miller chairs the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, a big job in light of the seemingly endless stream of scandals pouring out of VA headquarters. In 2014, it was revealed that the VA was systematically covering up the long wait times veterans faced when trying to get care from the agency.
The scandal prompted Congress to pass legislation limiting bonus awards to employees, and giving VA the authority to fire senior officials who manipulated healthcare wait-time statistics as part of the cover-up.
But top VA employees weren’t fired over the scandal, and many found a new way to find a financial windfall. The simple answer: take a new job in another city, and collect oodles of benefits.
In 2015, Diana Rubens became the poster child for the most recent example of fraud and abuse out of the VA. Rubens, who worked in Washington, D.C., created a job for herself in Philadelphia, and then netted $274,000 in relocation benefits to get there.
The program helps employees sell their homes so they can move to their new city, but in some cases at least, it seemed to allow workers to sell their homes at an inflated price. Rubens got an $80,000 boost in the value of her home, according to property records, and was also directly paid $33,000 for her move.
Rubens was on the high end of the scale, and was recently demoted at the VA, but not fired. Still, Miller notes that the average relocation benefit in 2013 and 2014 was about $30,000, and more than 800 people took advantage of it in each of those years.
That means the VA is spending about $25 million per year just to help its people move around the country. At a time when trust in the VA has plummeted for both Republicans and Democrats, Miller says it’s time to shut down the gravy train.
His bill would let the VA recoup relocation benefits for any VA employee if the secretary deems it necessary.
“We’re going to give them every tool available to hold people accountable,” he said.
But Miller admits that changing the culture at the VA has been an incredibly slow process, and it’s not clear even 18 months later that the culture has moved an inch. VA Secretary Bob McDonald has fired just three people for the healthcare wait-list scandal, and Miller admits the VA may decide against trying to collect relocation benefits, even after being encouraged by Congress.
Miller predicted that the VA would react to the bill by saying these sorts of awards are needed to keep talented people at the agency.
“They’re choosing not to do it,” he told the Examiner. “I’m sure they’re going to do the same thing — they think it’s needed for recruitment.”
Miller isn’t worried about his bill passing, given the anger many in Congress have toward the VA. The agency has been caught mocking and retaliating against VA whistleblowers, wasting more than $1 billion on a single infrastructure project in Colorado, and grossly exaggerating in public when it comes to how many employees have been fired in the name of accountability. Some members have said top VA officials have lied to them personally when asked whether certain employees have been fired.
But with so few days left in the House’s work schedule this year, Miller predicted passage in early 2016.
“This I would not expect to see passed before the end of this year, but it’ll be on the front burner next year,” he said.
