Bill Text: NJ AR125 | 2014-2015 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Urges Congress to pass H.R. 4031, which authorizes VA Secretary to remove or transfer senior employees due to poor performance.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 4-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2014-06-05 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Military and Veterans' Affairs Committee [AR125 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2014-AR125-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman CHRISTOPHER J. BROWN
District 8 (Atlantic, Burlington and Camden)
Assemblyman CHRIS A. BROWN
District 2 (Atlantic)
SYNOPSIS
Urges Congress to pass H.R. 4031, which authorizes VA Secretary to remove or transfer senior employees due to poor performance.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Assembly Resolution urging the Congress of the United States to pass H.R. 4031, which authorizes the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to remove employees or transfer them from the Senior Executive Service due to poor performance.
Whereas, Recent reports have exposed gross mismanagement within facilities operated by the federal Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), based on the creditable claims of veterans waiting several months for treatment and the recent deaths of 40 veterans awaiting treatment at a facility in Phoenix, Arizona; and
Whereas, Reports by the Inspector General of the department and the media have pinned the blame for such poor performance on senior executives within the department who are failing to serve veterans who served their country heroically on battlefields around the globe; and
Whereas, News of troubling instances of mismanagement within the VA have surfaced at the same time as a report by the Government Accountability Office, which finds that bonus pay within the department had no clear link to performance, so that senior executives who have neglected veterans in need have received glowing performance reviews and significant cash bonuses; and
Whereas, H.R. 4031, the "Department of Veterans Affairs Management Accountability Act of 2014," would authorize the Secretary of the department to remove those employees of the Senior Executive Service the secretary believes deserve removal from government service completely or transfer them to any General Schedule position within the current civil service system the secretary deems appropriate; and
Whereas, In addition, H.R. 4031 would give the Secretary the authority to remove employees in the same manner as a member of Congress can remove a member of his or her staff, and would require the secretary to give the Senate and House of Representatives Veterans' Affairs Committees notice of the removal within 30 days thereof; and
Whereas, If H.R. 4031 becomes law, the beneficiaries will include the millions of veterans who depend on the VA for benefits and services, the taxpayers who fund these important programs, and other VA employees who deserve the best and most accountable senior leaders possible; and
Whereas, Given the importance of providing the best care available to those veterans who have served this country honorably, and given the urgent need to remove or transfer those VA employees who neglect veterans or mismanage their care, this House urges Congress to pass H.R. 4031; now, therefore,
Be It Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. This House urges the Congress of the United States to pass H.R. 4031, which authorizes the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to remove employees or transfer them from the Senior Executive Service due to poor performance.
2. Copies of this resolution, as filed with the Secretary of State, shall be transmitted by the Clerk of the General Assembly to the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives, the President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate, each Senator and Representative from New Jersey in the Congress of the United States, and the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
STATEMENT
This Assembly resolution urges the Congress of the United States to pass H.R. 4031, which authorizes the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to remove employees or transfer them from the Senior Executive Service due to poor performance.
