{"id":85398,"date":"2017-03-18T07:39:11","date_gmt":"2017-03-18T12:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=85398"},"modified":"2017-03-18T07:39:11","modified_gmt":"2017-03-18T12:39:11","slug":"latta-supports-va-accountability-bills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2017\/03\/18\/latta-supports-va-accountability-bills\/","title":{"rendered":"Latta supports VA accountability bills"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Submitted information<\/em><\/p>\n<p>WASHINGTON, D.C.\u00a0&#8212;\u00a0U.S. Representative Bob Latta (R-Bowling Green) joined his colleagues to pass a pair of bills this week aimed at providing increased\u00a0accountability\u00a0within the Department of Veterans Affairs and aid hiring practices at the agency.<\/p>\n<p>One bill, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/115\/bills\/hr1259\/BILLS-115hr1259rh.pdf\">H.R. 1259<\/a>, the VA Accountability First Act, provides increased\u00a0flexibility\u00a0to the Secretary of the VA to remove, demote, or suspend employees for performance or misconduct. The bill also allows the department to recoup bonuses from poorly performing employees. That bill passed\u00a0Thursday\u00a0evening by a vote of 237-178.<\/p>\n<p>Latta also voted in favor of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/115\/bills\/hr1367\/BILLS-115hr1367rh.pdf\">H.R. 1367<\/a> on\u00a0Friday\u00a0morning. That bill provides authority to the VA Secretary to help hire and retain quality physicians and other VA employees. The bill establishes staffing, recruitment, and retention programs for the VA to\u00a0attract\u00a0the best available in the medical field to improve\u00a0care for patients. A 2016 survey that ranks the best places to work in the federal government found\u00a0that\u00a0the VA was ranked second to last for large agencies overall.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn order to improve care for our nation\u2019s veterans, the VA has to be a place where top doctors and staff want to work and are committed to staying,\u201d said Latta. \u201cWe should be doing all we can to\u00a0empower\u00a0the VA Secretary to recruit the best and the brightest employees.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the same time, it\u2019s important that the agency also have the flexibility to let go of underperforming staff and those committing misconduct,\u201d he added. \u201cUltimately,\u00a0these bills are about providing better care for the men and women that have served our country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Submitted information WASHINGTON, D.C.\u00a0&#8212;\u00a0U.S. Representative Bob Latta (R-Bowling Green) joined his colleagues to pass a pair of bills this week aimed at providing increased\u00a0accountability\u00a0within the Department of Veterans Affairs and aid hiring practices at the agency. One bill, H.R. 1259, the VA Accountability First Act, provides increased\u00a0flexibility\u00a0to the Secretary of the VA to remove, demote, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-02 00:55:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85398\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}