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EXCLUSIVE: A right-leaning analysis group is claiming that the Department of Veterans Affairs below the Biden administration back paid greater than $130 million to 1,700 individuals fired below a Trump-era legislation that enables for simpler accountability for federal staff.
Through Freedom of Information Act filings, the America First Policy Institute will quickly launch the outcomes of its probe.
Its investigation additionally discovered the VA reinstated greater than 100 terminated staff who have been fired for indiscretions starting from negligence to sleeping on the job. Dozens of dismissals accounted for in paperwork reviewed by Fox News Digital didn’t produce other particular offenses listed with them.
Following the passage of the 2017 legislation, the VA reportedly did not discount with its public worker union and was ordered to attend arbitration. Because of this, based on a supply acquainted, the VA may have been required to rehire all beforehand terminated staff, together with these fired for “grievous misconduct” like affected person abuse or harassment.
The agency finally reached a settlement with the union in 2023 and solely 106 out of 1,700 staff provided monetary compensation to this point have been reinstated.
The Department of Veterans Affairs constructing is seen in Washington, D.C., on July 22, 2019. (ALASTAIR PIKE/AFP by way of Getty Images)
The investigation discovered that of the greater than 4,000 terminated staff, greater than 1,700 obtained back pay or compensation.
At that fee, back pay to all the group of former staff would whole $300 million, an announcement from AFPI learn.
Former Trump VA Secretary Robert Wilkie mentioned the present administration has “let down American veterans and taxpayers” with such actions.
“Those fired for mistreating American veterans mustn’t even be allowed close to the VA, a lot much less reinstated,” mentioned Wilkie, now a fellow at AFPI’s Center for American Security.
“Instead of litigating these baseless grievances or working with Congress to strengthen the Accountability Act, the Biden-Harris administration surrendered to the government employee union. Taxpayers and veterans who receive care from poor performers will pay the price.”
ARMY VET PREDICTS FIRST RED FLIP OF ‘POOREST’ NC DISTRICT SINCE 1883, CITING BIDEN-ERA ‘MALAISE’
A U.S. Army and Vietnam War veteran attends a Memorial Day occasion on the Santa Fe National Cemetery in Santa Fe, N.M. (Robert Alexander/Getty Images)
In 2017, below the earlier administration, VA did not discount with AFGE on the implementation of this legislation — as legally required by VA’s contract. As a outcome, the agency was repeatedly court-ordered to reinstate fired staff, the supply mentioned.
But present VA management is adamant that no worker beforehand fired for critical offenses like affected person abuse has been reinstated.
“VA has ensured that bad actors cannot return to work and saved taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars,” a division spokesperson informed Fox News Digital.
“The [Trump] administration’s implementation of the 2017 law was repeatedly struck down by the courts, putting VA at risk of having to rehire individuals who committed patient abuse, harassment, and criminal activity — and putting taxpayers on the hook for more than $1 billion.”
The spokesperson mentioned the VA will proceed to carry staff accountable who mistreat sufferers or commit different transgressions, and that anybody who’s reinstated might be held to that prime customary or be dismissed.
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“Veterans trust VA at the highest rate in history — and we are delivering more care and more benefits to more veterans than ever before,” they mentioned.
The legislation Trump signed, authored by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., was the Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act — meant to do what its title laid out.
It gave the agency new authority to terminate staff for poor efficiency or misconduct extra shortly, and led to a number of grievances being filed by the general public worker union AFGE.
Some of the reinstated staff have been initially terminated for sleeping on the job, unauthorized entry to worker medical data and failure to observe procedures, based on FOIA paperwork obtained by Fox News Digital.
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