Congress is set to pass a $1.1 trillion funding bill that would put new limits on a relocation program for VA workers that has been criticized as a way to funnel extra money and benefits to VA employees.
But the language wouldn’t shut down the program completely.
At issue is the Home Marketing Incentive Program and the Appraisal Value Offer Program, which many members of Congress say have been abused by top VA workers. The programs offer benefits to workers who have to relocate in a new city to take on a new VA position.
But two recent cases show top officials have used them to net hundreds of thousands in benefits, including by selling homes at inflated prices at the expense of taxpayers, and charging taxpayers for huge moving expenses.
The VA’s inspector general said in September that executives bagged $2 million in benefits this way. The most notorious case was that involving Diana Rubens, who gained $288,000 in benefits for taking on a new VA job in Philadelphia.
Last month, Rubens and another VA official, Kimberley Graves, refused to testify in Congress about how they benefited from the programs.
To address the problem, Congress included language in the spending bill that should pass this week that prohibits any money from being spent on the programs. But the language also includes an exception, and allows them to be used “to recruit for a position for which recruitment or retention of qualified personnel is likely to be difficult in the absence of the use of these incentives.”
The language does attempt to give Congress a heads up whenever the program is used. If the VA secretary decides to use the program, he must “submit written notification” to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees.
