II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1096
To require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to require the employees of
the Department of Veterans Affairs to receive training developed by
the Inspector General of the Department on reporting wrongdoing to,
responding to requests from, and cooperating with the Office of Inspector
General of the Department, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH30, 2023
Ms. H
ASSAN(for herself and Mr. BOOZMAN) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
A BILL
To require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to require the
employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs to re-
ceive training developed by the Inspector General of the
Department on reporting wrongdoing to, responding to
requests from, and cooperating with the Office of Inspec-
tor General of the Department, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Department of Vet-4
erans Affairs Office of Inspector General Training Act of 5
2023’’. 6
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•S 1096 IS
SEC. 2. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS EMPLOYEE 1
TRAINING REGARDING OFFICE OF INSPEC-2
TOR GENERAL. 3
(a) T
RAINING.—The Secretary of Veterans Affairs 4
shall require each employee of the Department of Veterans 5
Affairs who begins employment with the Department on 6
or after the date of the enactment of this Act to receive 7
training that the Inspector General of the Department 8
shall develop on the reporting of wrongdoing to, respond-9
ing to requests from, and cooperating with the Office of 10
Inspector General of the Department. 11
(b) T
IMING OFTRAINING.—In carrying out sub-12
section (a), the Secretary shall require each employee of 13
the Department covered under such subsection to undergo 14
the training required by such subsection not later than 15
one year after the date on which the employee begins em-16
ployment with the Department. 17
(c) E
LEMENTS.—Training developed and required 18
under subsection (a) shall include the following: 19
(1) Definition of the role, responsibilities, and 20
legal authority of the Inspector General of the De-21
partment and the duties of employees of the Depart-22
ment for engaging with the Office of Inspector Gen-23
eral. 24
(2) Identification of the circumstances and 25
mechanisms for reporting fraud, waste, abuse, and 26
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•S 1096 IS
other wrongdoing to the Inspector General, including 1
making confidential complaints to the Inspector 2
General. 3
(3) Identification of the prohibitions and rem-4
edies that help to protect employees of the Depart-5
ment from retaliation when reporting wrongdoing to 6
the Inspector General. 7
(4) Recognition of opportunities to engage with 8
staff of the Office of Inspector General to improve 9
programs, operations, and services of the Depart-10
ment. 11
(d) D
ESIGN ANDUPDATE.—The Inspector General of 12
the Department shall design, and update as the Inspector 13
General considers appropriate, the training developed and 14
required by subsection (a). 15
(e) S
YSTEM.—The Secretary shall provide, via the 16
talent management system of the Department, or suc-17
cessor system, the training developed and required under 18
subsection (a). 19
(f) R
ELATION TOCERTAINTRAINING.—The Sec-20
retary shall ensure that training developed and required 21
under subsection (a) is separate and distinct from training 22
provided under section 733 of title 38, United States 23
Code. 24
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•S 1096 IS
(g) NOTICE TOEMPLOYEES.—The Secretary shall 1
ensure that the Inspector General is afforded the oppor-2
tunity, not less frequently than twice each year and more 3
frequently if the Inspector General considers appropriate 4
under extraordinary circumstances, to use the electronic 5
mail system of the Department to notify all authorized 6
users of such system of the following: 7
(1) The roles and responsibilities of the employ-8
ees of the Department when engaging with the Of-9
fice of Inspector General. 10
(2) The availability of training provided under 11
subsection (a). 12
(3) How to access training provided under sub-13
section (a). 14
(4) Information about how to contact the Office 15
of Inspector General, including a link to any 16
website-based reporting form of the Office. 17
Æ
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