VA Reform Bill Preserves Employee Bonuses

We ARE Talking Congress here. Today's approval rating at 14%.

weaselzippers;

Feel good legislation while not addressing or fixing the problem.

Via Stars and Stripes

Despite public outrage over dysfunctional and dangerously run hospitals, a landmark VA reform bill set to be signed Thursday by President Barack Obama will retain some department perks: Hefty bonuses for executives and other employees.

The bill includes a compromise by House and Senate lawmakers allowing the Department of Veterans Affairs to continue handing out up to $360 million in employee performance awards each year as it attempts to overhaul its health care system and ease chronically long patient wait times.

Obama has announced he will sign the legislation Thursday during a ceremony at Fort Belvoir, Va., following overwhelming votes of support in Congress. It will begin the most comprehensive VA reform in decades by expanding access to private care, hiring more medical staff, and streamlining how executives are fired.

The cap on employee performance awards, which totaled $278 million across the department in 2013, was a product of fractious House and Senate negotiations in late July.

House lawmakers led by Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the chamber’s Veterans Affairs Committee, wanted to completely eliminate VA bonuses due to gross mismanagement, according to committee staff.

In one case, the VA awarded a nearly $63,000 bonus to a Pittsburgh hospital administrator after an investigation in April found his facility failed to prevent a deadly outbreak of legionnaires disease among veterans.

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Thank You Dapandico and Stars and Stripes.

Hey, here's a thought. Make the Congress Critters responsible for this pay those bonuses out of their own $174K a year salary.