Congressional Crusader for Firing More Feds Announces Retirement

One of the main congressional proponents of making it easier for federal agencies to fire their employees will retire this year, he announced Thursday.

Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., has chaired the House Veterans' Affairs Committee for the last six years. He has frequently deplored Veterans Affairs Department officials for their reluctance to terminate malfeasant employees, especially those involved in manipulating patient waitlist data.

In perhaps the most notable accomplishment of his tenure, Miller co-authored the 2014 Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act, which -- as part of a larger effort to reform VA -- gave the department more authority to fire its senior executives. Miller highlighted the measure in a blog post announcing his forthcoming retirement.

“After exposing VA’s delays in care and accountability crises,” Miller wrote, “we wrote and passed the most significant reform bill in the history of the Department of Veterans Affairs.”

While other lawmakers fought for more funding for VA to hire medical personnel and build new facilities, Miller consistently highlighted the firing provision. His initial language would have made VA’s Senior Executive Service employees at-will, but they were afforded expedited appeal rights as part of the compromise bill.

Miller has called that bill a “test case” for the rest of federal government.

“This, we hoped, would become a template for future legislation that would allow accountability within the ranks of federal service,” he told Government Executive in 2015. “Certainly poor performing employees are not only in the VA. They are found at every level of the federal government.”

He has frequently noted, however, he harbors no ill will toward the federal workforce writ large.

“We want good employees to be protected,” Miller said. “We want the bad employees who are gaming the system and perpetuating this culture within the federal government to find somewhere else to work."

True to his word, Miller introduced a bill last year to expand the expedited firing provision to all VA employees. He has repeatedly introduced measures to limit bonuses at the department, while enabling the VA secretary to claw back those paid out to bad apples. While the lawmaker will no longer be in Congress in 2017, he promised to use his remaining time to continue his fight to highlight bad behavior at VA.

“There is still more to accomplish before I depart,” he wrote. “I intend to complete my tenure as House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs chairman while maintaining the same robust oversight of VA that has defined my chairmanship.”