Congress clears Trump-backed bill to fast-track firing of VA workers
By Lisa Rein June 6 at 7:32 PM
The Senate cleared a path Tuesday evening for the Department of Veterans Affairs to take swift action to fire and discipline problem employees, overhauling long-guaranteed job protections that Republicans would like to change across the federal workforce.
Following a voice vote — and action in the House earlier this year — a bipartisan bill is expected to arrive quickly on the desk of President Trump, who pledged to bring accountability to VA, the second-largest federal agency. Trump and his GOP allies on Capitol Hill have long criticized what they call a culture of incompetence and misconduct at VA and other agencies in which poor performers and rule-breaking employees rarely are punished.
Backed by large veterans service organizations, the change is one of the first legislative victories under Republican control of Congress and the White House. The threat of eroding worker protections has met with fierce opposition from federal employees, the unions that represent them and Democratic lawmakers. But conservatives consider VA — and the politically valuable constituency it serves — a template for a broader shake-up of federal job protections and benefits.
Similar legislation had cleared the House several times in recent years but stalled in the Senate, resisted by Democrats. But it gained new momentum this spring with a bipartisan agreement in the closely divided Senate, where more than a dozen Democrats are considered politically vulnerable after Trump’s election.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/congress-clears-trump-backed-bill-to-fast-track-firing-of-va-workers/2017/06/06/1ac3ef5e-4ad7-11e7-bc1b-fddbd8359dee_story.html
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