Holding employees accountable

Supports legislation to hold employees accountable for their performance and conduct, but hasn’t been specific about which piece of legislation. “From the top leadership to mid-level managers to entry-level employees, everyone at the VA must embody the highest workplace standards,” her platform stated. “Supervisors must be empowered to suspend or remove underperforming employees in accordance with due process not only for the good of the organization, but in service of our nation’s veterans.” Would protect whistleblowers at the same time, though.

Holding employees accountable

Would deploy “VetStat,” a program he developed as Maryland governor to track the needs of vets in his state, to “pinpoint and ameliorate problems at the VA before they spiral into widespread crises.” The data system “would improve senior policymakers’ visibility into service delivery on the frontlines and help them allocate resources optimally,” he said.  O’Malley’s platform also calls for efforts to  “utilize data to improve transparency and would “empower senior VA officials around clear priorities and hold them accountable.”

Holding employees accountable

Sanders authored the 2014 Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act to improve care and increase accountability at the VA. The law is intended to improve care at VA but also makes it easier to fire and demote senior executives engaged in wrongdoing.

Holding employees accountable

Cruz added an amendment to a November Senate appropriations bill that would require VA to “submit to Congress a report on wait times for medical appointments at the South Texas Veterans Health Care System of the Department of Veterans Affairs.” In a Veterans Day speech in New Hampshire, Cruz also criticized the department, saying, “If I’m elected president, there is going to be accountability. People will be fired and anyone criminally liable will be prosecuted.”

Holding employees accountable

Kasich says he supports better management and less centralization at Veterans Affairs, telling Jake Tapper, “We’ve got to get some of the smartest business minds in the country together to create a model. And that model is going to be more decentralized.”

Holding employees accountable

Christie would “hire a qualified professional who has run a major healthcare system in this country to be Secretary of Veterans Affairs.”

Holding employees accountable

Would eliminate the entire department and move some of its functions into the Defense Department, making employee accountability a moot point.

Holding employees accountable

Would expand the firing authority in the Choice Act to all VA employees, “especially those who engage in any conduct that results in a lapse of care for a veteran, or are responsible for waste, fraud, and abuse.” He would also fire “bureaucrats who refuse to make bidding for VA contracts competitive (as required by law)” his website states. Paid administrative leave would be limited to 14 days, and the department would be able to rescind SES employees’ pensions “if convicted of a felony related to VA,” and their bonuses at any time. There would be a new disciplinary process for managers who retaliate against whistleblowers.

Holding employees accountable

He would “make the VA great again” in part “by firing the corrupt and incompetent VA executives who let our veterans down.” Whistleblowers who expose waste and mismanagement would be “rewarded, not punished.”

Holding employees accountable

According to his campaign website, Rubio “has introduced legislation allowing secretaries of the VA to remove any VA employee based on performance or misconduct. Without the basic accountability this measure offers, we’ll never have a VA that works for veterans rather than bureaucrats.” In the Aug. 6 GOP debate, Rubio said it was “outrageous [the VA has] only fired one person to date” following the wait time scandal.