I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 472
To amend title 38, United States Code, to modify personnel action procedures
with respect to employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs, and
for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY16, 2025
Mr. B
OST(for himself, Mr. ROUZER, Mrs. KIGGANSof Virginia, Mrs. MILLER-
M
EEKS, Mr. OBERNOLTE, Mr. ISSA, Mr. RUTHERFORD, Mr. NEWHOUSE,
Mr. C
ISCOMANI, Mr. VANORDEN, Mr. WILSONof South Carolina, Mr.
M
URPHY, Mr. SELF, Mr. CARTERof Georgia, Mrs. RADEWAGEN, Mr.
W
EBSTERof Florida, Mr. CLINE, Mr. BERGMAN, Mr. LOUDERMILK, Mrs.
H
ARSHBARGER, Mrs. CAMMACK, Mrs. KING-HINDS, Ms. MACE, Mr.
H
AMADEHof Arizona, Mr. BARRETT, and Mr. LUTTRELL) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
A BILL
To amend title 38, United States Code, to modify personnel
action procedures with respect to employees of the De-
partment of Veterans Affairs, 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 ‘‘Restore Department 4
of Veterans Affairs Accountability Act of 2025’’ or the 5
‘‘Restore VA Accountability Act of 2025’’. 6
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SEC. 2. SUPERVISORS: REMOVAL, DEMOTION, OR SUSPEN-1
SION BASED ON PERFORMANCE OR MIS-2
CONDUCT. 3
(a) D
ISCIPLINE OFSUPERVISORS.— 4
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Title 38, United States 5
Code, is amended by inserting after section 711 the 6
following: 7
‘‘§ 712. Supervisors: removal, demotion, or suspension 8
based on performance or misconduct 9
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary may remove from 10
civil service, demote, or suspend a covered individual who 11
is an employee of the Department if the Secretary deter-12
mines by substantial evidence that the performance or 13
misconduct of the covered individual warrants such action. 14
‘‘(b) R
IGHTS ANDPROCEDURES.—(1)(A) When mak-15
ing an initial decision under subsection (a) with respect 16
to determining whether a covered individual should be re-17
moved, demoted, or suspended, the deciding employee of 18
the Department shall exclusively apply the following fac-19
tors: 20
‘‘(i) The nature and seriousness of the of-21
fense, and its relation to the covered individ-22
ual’s duties, position, and responsibilities, in-23
cluding whether the offense was intentional or 24
technical or inadvertent, or was committed ma-25
liciously or for gain, or was frequently repeated. 26
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‘‘(ii) The covered individual’s job level and 1
type of employment, including supervisory or fi-2
duciary role, and prominence of the position. 3
‘‘(B) The Secretary shall review the initial decision 4
and uphold such decision if it is supported by substantial 5
evidence. 6
‘‘(2) A covered individual subject to an action under 7
subsection (a) is entitled to— 8
‘‘(A) advance notice of the action and a file 9
containing all evidence in support of the proposed 10
action; 11
‘‘(B) be represented by an attorney or other 12
representative of the covered individual’s choice; and 13
‘‘(C) grieve the action in accordance with an in-14
ternal grievance process that the Secretary, in con-15
sultation with the Assistant Secretary for Account-16
ability and Whistleblower Protection, shall establish 17
for purposes of this subsection. 18
‘‘(3) A final decision by the Secretary under para-19
graph (1)(B) that is not grieved, and a grievance decision 20
under paragraph (2)(C), shall be final and conclusive. 21
‘‘(4) The procedures under chapter 43 of title 5 shall 22
not apply to a removal, demotion, or suspension under this 23
section, and the Secretary may carry out such a removal, 24
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demotion, or suspension without first placing a covered in-1
dividual on a performance improvement plan. 2
‘‘(c) T
IMING.—(1)(A) The aggregate period for no-3
tice, response, and final decision by the Secretary of an 4
action under this section may not exceed 15 business days. 5
‘‘(B) The period for the response of a covered indi-6
vidual to a notice under subsection (b)(2)(A) shall be 7 7
business days. 8
‘‘(C) The final decision by the Secretary under sub-9
section (b)(1)(B) shall— 10
‘‘(i) be issued not later than 15 business days 11
after notice is provided under subsection (b)(2)(A); 12
and 13
‘‘(ii) be in writing and shall include the specific 14
reasons for the decision. 15
‘‘(D) The Secretary shall ensure that the grievance 16
process established under paragraph (2)(C) takes fewer 17
than 21 days after the final decision. 18
‘‘(d) J
UDICIALREVIEW.—(1) A covered individual 19
adversely affected by a final decision under this section 20
that is not grieved, or by a grievance decision under sub-21
section (b)(2)(C), may obtain judicial review of such deci-22
sion. 23
‘‘(2) Any removal, demotion, or suspension under this 24
section is not appealable to the Merit Systems Protection 25
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Board, or to any administrative judge or other person ap-1
pointed by the Merit Systems Protection Board. 2
‘‘(3) In any case in which judicial review is sought 3
under paragraph (1), the court shall review the record and 4
may set aside any Department action found to be— 5
‘‘(A) arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discre-6
tion, or otherwise not in accordance with a provision 7
of law; 8
‘‘(B) obtained without procedures required by a 9
provision of law having been followed; or 10
‘‘(C) unsupported by substantial evidence. 11
‘‘(4) Except to the extent that an appeal under this 12
subsection presents a constitutional issue, such court may 13
not review a challenge to the penalty imposed against the 14
covered individual or mitigate such penalty. 15
‘‘(e) D
EMOTEDINDIVIDUALS.—(1) A demotion under 16
subsection (a) shall be carried out as a reduction in grade 17
for which the covered individual is qualified, that the Sec-18
retary determines is appropriate, and that reduces the an-19
nual rate of pay of the covered individual. 20
‘‘(2) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any 21
covered individual so demoted— 22
‘‘(A) shall, beginning on the date of such demo-23
tion, receive the annual rate of pay applicable to 24
such grade; 25
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‘‘(B) may not be placed on administrative leave 1
during the period during which an appeal (if any) 2
under this section is ongoing, and may only receive 3
pay if the covered individual reports for duty or is 4
approved to use accrued unused annual, sick, family 5
medical, military, or court leave; and 6
‘‘(C) who does not report for duty or receive ap-7
proval to use accrued unused leave shall not receive 8
pay or other benefits. 9
‘‘(f) W
HISTLEBLOWER PROTECTION.—(1) In the 10
case of a covered individual seeking corrective action (or 11
on behalf of whom corrective action is sought) from the 12
Office of Special Counsel based on an alleged prohibited 13
personnel practice described in section 2302(b) of title 5, 14
the Secretary may not remove, demote, or suspend such 15
covered individual under subsection (a) without the ap-16
proval of the Special Counsel under section 1214(f) of title 17
5. 18
‘‘(2) In the case of a covered individual who has made 19
a whistleblower disclosure to the Assistant Secretary for 20
Accountability and Whistleblower Protection, the Sec-21
retary may not remove, demote, or suspend such covered 22
individual under subsection (a) until— 23
‘‘(A) in the case in which the Assistant Sec-24
retary determines to refer the whistleblower disclo-25
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sure under section 323(c)(1)(D) of this title to an 1
office or other investigative entity, a final decision 2
with respect to the whistleblower disclosure has been 3
made by such office or other investigative entity; or 4
‘‘(B) in the case in which the Assistant Sec-5
retary determines not to refer the whistleblower dis-6
closure under such section, the Assistant Secretary 7
makes such determination. 8
‘‘(g) T
ERMINATION OFINVESTIGATIONS BY OFFICE 9
OFSPECIALCOUNSEL.—(1) Notwithstanding any other 10
provision of law, the Special Counsel (established by sec-11
tion 1211 of title 5) may terminate an investigation of 12
a prohibited personnel practice alleged by an employee or 13
former employee of the Department after the Special 14
Counsel provides to the employee or former employee a 15
written statement of the reasons for the termination of 16
the investigation. 17
‘‘(2) Such statement may not be admissible as evi-18
dence in any judicial or administrative proceeding without 19
the consent of such employee or former employee. 20
‘‘(h) A
PPLICATION.—This section shall apply to any 21
performance or misconduct of a covered individual begin-22
ning on the date of enactment of the Department of Vet-23
erans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection 24
Act of 2017 (Public Law 115–41). 25
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‘‘(i) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 1
‘‘(1) The term ‘civil service’ has the meaning 2
given that term in section 2101 of title 5. 3
‘‘(2) The term ‘covered individual’ means an 4
employee of the Department who is a supervisor or 5
management official as defined in section 7103(a) of 6
title 5 occupying a position at the Department, in-7
cluding individuals appointed pursuant to this title, 8
title 5, and hybrid employees appointed pursuant to 9
section 7401 of this title, but does not include— 10
‘‘(A) an individual occupying a senior exec-11
utive position (as defined in section 713(d) of 12
this title); 13
‘‘(B) an individual appointed pursuant to 14
section 7306, 7401(1), 7401(4), or 7405 of this 15
title; 16
‘‘(C) an individual who has not completed 17
a probationary or trial period; or 18
‘‘(D) a political appointee. 19
‘‘(3) The term ‘grade’ has the meaning given 20
such term in section 7511(a) of title 5. 21
‘‘(4) The term ‘misconduct’ includes neglect of 22
duty, malfeasance, or failure to accept a directed re-23
assignment or to accompany a position in a transfer 24
of function. 25
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‘‘(5) The term ‘political appointee’ means an in-1
dividual who is— 2
‘‘(A) employed in a position described 3
under sections 5312 through 5316 of title 5 4
(relating to the Executive Schedule); 5
‘‘(B) a limited term appointee, limited 6
emergency appointee, or noncareer appointee in 7
the Senior Executive Service, as defined under 8
paragraphs (5), (6), and (7), respectively, of 9
section 3132(a) of title 5; or 10
‘‘(C) employed in a position of a confiden-11
tial or policy-determining character under 12
schedule C of subpart C of part 213 of title 5, 13
Code of Federal Regulations, or successor regu-14
lation. 15
‘‘(6) The term ‘suspend’ means the placing of 16
an employee, for disciplinary reasons, in a temporary 17
status without duties and pay for a period in excess 18
of 14 days. 19
‘‘(7) The term ‘whistleblower disclosure’ has the 20
meaning given such term in section 323(g) of this 21
title.’’. 22
(2) C
LERICAL AMENDMENT .—The table of con-23
tents for title 38, United States Code, is amended 24
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by inserting after the item relating to section 711 1
the following: 2
‘‘712. Supervisors: removal, demotion, or suspension based on performance or
misconduct.’’.
SEC. 3. SENIOR EXECUTIVES: MODIFICATION OF PROCE-
3
DURES TO REMOVE, DEMOTE, OR SUSPEND 4
BASED ON PERFORMANCE OR MISCONDUCT. 5
Section 713 of title 38, United States Code, is 6
amended— 7
(1) in subsection (a)— 8
(A) after ‘‘determines’’, insert ‘‘by sub-9
stantial evidence’’; and 10
(B) by adding at the end the following: 11
‘‘(3) When making an initial decision under this sub-12
section with respect to determining whether a covered in-13
dividual should be reprimanded or suspended, involun-14
tarily reassigned, demoted, or removed, the deciding em-15
ployee of the Department shall exclusively apply the fol-16
lowing factors: 17
‘‘(A) The nature and seriousness of the offense, 18
and its relation to the covered individual’s duties, 19
position, and responsibilities, including whether the 20
offense was intentional or technical or inadvertent, 21
or was committed maliciously or for gain, or was fre-22
quently repeated. 23
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‘‘(B) The covered individual’s job level and type 1
of employment, including supervisory or fiduciary 2
role, and prominence of the position. 3
‘‘(4) The Secretary shall review the initial decision 4
and uphold such decision if it is supported by substantial 5
evidence.’’; 6
(2) in subsection (b)— 7
(A) in paragraph (3), by inserting ‘‘after 8
the final decision’’ after ‘‘21 days’’; and 9
(B) by adding at the end the following: 10
‘‘(7) Except to the extent that an appeal under this 11
subsection presents a constitutional issue, such court may 12
not review a challenge to the penalty imposed against the 13
covered individual or mitigate such penalty.’’; and 14
(3) insert after subsection (c) the following 15
(and redesignate subsection (d) as subsection (e)): 16
‘‘(d) A
PPLICATION.—This section shall apply to any 17
misconduct or performance of a covered individual begin-18
ning on the date of enactment of the Department of Vet-19
erans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection 20
Act of 2017 (Public Law 115–41).’’. 21
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SEC. 4. MODIFICATION OF DISCIPLINARY PROCEDURES 1
FOR EMPLOYEES OF THE DEPARTMENT OF 2
VETERANS AFFAIRS. 3
(a) D
EPARTMENT OF VETERANSAFFAIRSEM-4
PLOYEEDISCIPLINEMODIFICATIONS.—Section 714 of 5
title 38, United States Code, is amended— 6
(1) in subsection (a), 7
(A) in paragraph (1), by inserting ‘‘by sub-8
stantial evidence’’ after ‘‘the Secretary deter-9
mines’’; and 10
(B) by adding at the end the following: 11
‘‘(3)(A) When making an initial decision under this 12
subsection with respect to determining whether a covered 13
individual should be removed, demoted, or suspended, the 14
deciding employee of the Department shall exclusively 15
apply the following factors: 16
‘‘(i) The nature and seriousness of the offense, 17
and its relation to the covered individual’s duties, 18
position, and responsibilities, including whether the 19
offense was intentional or technical or inadvertent, 20
or was committed maliciously or for gain, or was fre-21
quently repeated. 22
‘‘(ii) The covered individual’s job level and type 23
of employment, including supervisory or fiduciary 24
role, and prominence of the position. 25
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‘‘(iii) The covered individual’s past disciplinary 1
record. 2
‘‘(iv) The covered individual’s past work record, 3
including length of service, performance on the job, 4
ability to get along with fellow workers, and depend-5
ability. 6
‘‘(v) Mitigating circumstances surrounding the 7
offense such as unusual job tensions, personality 8
problems, mental impairment, harassment, or bad 9
faith, malice, or provocation on the part of others in-10
volved in the matter. 11
‘‘(B) The Secretary shall review the initial decision 12
and uphold such decision if it is supported by substantial 13
evidence.’’. 14
(2) in subsection (c)— 15
(A) by striking paragraph (1)(D); and 16
(B) in paragraph (3), by inserting before 17
the period the following: ‘‘, and the Secretary 18
may carry out such a removal, demotion, or 19
suspension without first placing a covered indi-20
vidual on a performance improvement plan’’; 21
(3) in subsection (d)— 22
(A) in paragraph (2), by adding at the end 23
the following: 24
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‘‘(C) Except to the extent that an appeal under this 1
subsection presents a constitutional issue, the administra-2
tive judge may not review a challenge to the penalty im-3
posed against the covered individual.’’; 4
(B) in paragraph (3), by adding at the end 5
the following: 6
‘‘(D) Except to the extent that an appeal under this 7
subsection presents a constitutional issue, the Merit Sys-8
tems Protection Board may not review a challenge to the 9
penalty imposed against the covered individual.’’; 10
(C) in paragraph (5), by adding at the end 11
the following: 12
‘‘(C) Except to the extent that an appeal under this 13
subsection presents a constitutional issue, such Court may 14
not review a challenge to the penalty imposed against the 15
covered individual or mitigate such penalty.’’; and 16
(D) by striking paragraph (10); 17
(4) by redesignating subsection (h) as sub-18
section (j); 19
(5) by inserting after subsection (g) the fol-20
lowing: 21
‘‘(h) C
OLLECTIVEBARGAININGAGREEMENTS.—The 22
procedures in this section shall supersede any collective 23
bargaining agreement to the extent that such agreement 24
is inconsistent with such procedures. 25
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‘‘(i) APPLICATION.—This section shall apply to any 1
performance or misconduct of a covered individual begin-2
ning on the date of enactment of the Department of Vet-3
erans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection 4
Act of 2017 (Public Law 115–41).’’; and 5
(6) in paragraph (1) of subsection (j), as redes-6
ignated by paragraph (4)— 7
(A) by inserting ‘‘including individuals ap-8
pointed pursuant to this title, title 5, and hy-9
brid employees appointed pursuant to section 10
7401 of this title’’ after ‘‘Department’’; 11
(B) in subparagraph (D), by striking the 12
period and inserting ‘‘; or’’; and 13
(C) by adding after subparagraph (D) the 14
following: 15
‘‘(E) a supervisor or management official 16
as defined in section 7103(a) of title 5.’’. 17
(b) VHA E
MPLOYEEDISCIPLINEMODIFICATIONS.— 18
Section 7403(f)(3) of such title is amended— 19
(1) by striking ‘‘Notwithstanding any other pro-20
vision of this title or other law,’’ and inserting ‘‘(A) 21
Notwithstanding any other provision of this title or 22
other law, and consistent with subparagraph (B),’’; 23
and 24
(2) by adding at the end the following: 25
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‘‘(B) With respect to any covered individual (as that 1
term is defined in section 712 or 714) appointed to such 2
positions, such matters shall be resolved, at the Sec-3
retary’s sole discretion, under— 4
‘‘(i) section 712; 5
‘‘(ii) section 714; or 6
‘‘(iii) title 5 as though such individuals had 7
been appointed under that title.’’. 8
Æ
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