House approves bill to make it easier to fire at VA

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House approved a bill Wednesday aimed at making it easier for the Department of Veterans Affairs to fire employees for misconduct or poor performance — a source of ongoing tension with the Obama administration.

The House bill is the latest in a series of efforts by lawmakers to respond to a two-year-old scandal over chronic delays for veterans seeking medical care, and falsified records covering up the long waits.

"For too long, union bosses, administration officials and their enablers have used every trick in the book to help VA bureaucrats who can't or won't do their jobs remain firmly entrenched in the agency's bureaucracy," he said.

The American Federation of Government Employees, a union that represents 230,000 VA employees, said the bill would undermine veterans' health care and other services by gutting employees' due process rights to challenge wrongful firing or retaliation against whistleblowers.

"If Congress passes this bill, frontline employees who dare to speak up against mismanagement and patient harm will face retaliation, harassment and the loss of their jobs," said union president J. David Cox Sr.