To:
Jackson, Ryan[jackson.ryan@epa.gov]
From: The Washington Post
Sent: Mon 7/10/2017 4:00:21 PM
Subject: [SPAM] Federal Insider: VA fires more than 500 feds under Trump, even before new
accountability law
IVA fires more than 500 feds under Trump, even before new accountability law
By Joe Davidson
/ President Trump signs the Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act of 2017, aiming to /innovate veterans' health care access on June 23. (The Washington Post)
The agency that has been the main target of efforts to fire feds faster dismissed more than 500 employees this year -- even before a new
ountability law took effect.
Since the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) shamed itself in 2014 with a scandal over the coverup of long patient w v vmeSj Capitol Hill politicians
demanded that the agency accelerate sacking -- as if that were the i main measure of good personnel administration. Department leaders joined the call and perpetuated the impression that life would be better if only more derelicts couA h* c rmped.
n we know that VA has dumped plenty.
Its first public posting, released Friday, of adverse actions against employees, terminations, suspensions and demotions, showed that the department fired 525 staffer' Tom Jan. 20, when President Trump took
se, through July 3.
The number of staffers dismissed should not be confused with effective human resource management. A certain percentage of terminations is /inevitable in any organization, particularly during probationary periods. Yet, m. ^messive and perverse focus on firing makes that a valued metric, instead of more attention on measures encouraging the agency, its managers and its employees to succeed.
VA's 26-page list is filled with "removals," which is government-speak for
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firings, of staffers, including de...........................usekeepers, grave diggers.
"Under this administration, VA is committed to becoming the most
transparent organization in government," Secretary David Shulkin said.
Veterans and taxpayers ha1
ght to know what we're doing to hold our
employees accountat
d make our personnel actions transparent.
Posting this information online for all to see, and updating it weekly, will do
just that."
This transparency also busts the myth that feds can't be fired. Terminating more than 500 people in less than six months, even from a 345,000-strong department workforce, should be enough to make the cruelest boss content.
Governmentwide, more than 77,000 feds were fired for performance or
conduct issues during fiscal 2000-2014, according to the Merit Systems
Protection Board (MSPB), an average of more than 5,000 a year. Out of a
current workforce of about 2 million, that's not much, I
)t supposed to
be. Plus, 5,000 is not nothing.
The list of adverse actions was compiled before Trump signed the VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act last month. It erodes civil
;es and pointedly
"Some of the employees involved in these [wait list] scandals remained on the payrolls," Trump lamented at the signing ceremony. "Outdated laws kept fhe government from holding those who failed our veterans accountable."
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But the adverse-action list demonstrates than many VA employees were 'held accountable before the act became law, despite comments by Trump and Shulkin giving the opposite impression.
"It is clear that there is sadly a pervasive lack of accountability," Shulkin said at a Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee hearing in May. He cited an employee who "was caught watching pornography on the job." That employee, a psychiatrist, was fired, just not as quickly as Shulkin wanted.
like democracy, due process takes time.
Under the new accountability law, due process for VA employees, such as it
is, will take less time and they can be bounced on less evidence. Shulkin can
design an in-house process th > v. ,kes tom the prosecutor, judge and
appellate court for senior executives. He is responsible for charging them
with an offen
itermining the punishmefflWcM
m^8yO ideals
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of penalty and must uphold actions when VA proves misconduct by substantial evidence," a lower bar than the previously required "preponderance of evidence."
Leaders of employee organizations differ on Shulkin's decision to release the list of adverse actions.
J. David Cox Sr., president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents more than 70 percent of VA's employees, said the list "isn't transparency. It's an intimidation tactic. ... As former VA Secretary Bob McDonald said, you can't fire your way to excellence."
I side more with Bill Valdez, president of the Senior Executives Association. Rather than intimidation, the list demonstrates "it's not so hard to remove feds and it happens all the time," he said. "Why in the world did they need mme aufborfo to foe fees when they can to it at tms rate?
The list, Valdez added, is "a great demonstration to the American public that
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feds are held accountable and can be heid accountable."
Read more:
Many veterans would suffer under Republican health-care plan New VA law sets stage for governmentwide cut in civil-service protections Will VA ch mm, )ice of reason on climate change and medical marijuana in Trump administration?
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