The House is poised to take time out of their busy schedules to pass a pay cut for employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
Members will call up H.R. 1405, which includes several different provisions dealing with veterans benefits, but also includes the cut in bonuses or salary awards. The VA currently pays out about $400 million in bonuses to its workers each year, but the bill could cap total annual bonus payments at $345 million through fiscal 2018.
A report on the bill from the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee noted the growing frustration in Congress with the VA, in particular the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA), under which the backlog of veterans’ disability claims has grown.
The VA was making solid progress on clearing the backlog of claims prior to the GOP Government Shutdown, and the shutdown jeopardized that progress by eliminating several weeks of overtime that would have been spent clearing the backlog.
There are other provisions in H.R. 1405 that will benefit veterans themselves, but a provision to cut bonus payments for employees of the VA could end up punishing the wrong people.
The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee report cites concerns over “merit-based bonuses to managers and supervisors who have led troubled offices,” and it may be true that, in some cases, the wrong people are receiving bonuses, but it seems likely to me that cutting total payments will punish those who deserve it more than those who don’t.
Five years is a very long time to put this kind of restriction in place for. The VA backlog could be cleared long before that time and employees of the department will still be punished.
The VA expects to clear the entire backlog by 2015.