On the recordJuly 29, 2015
I just want to remind my colleagues that the front-end provisions that were accorded to the SES employees, we stripped them completely of the front-end due process. Only with a regulatory move by the VA itself, instituted a 5-day procedure of due process because they, too, believed that case law required at least some front end, and that was over the objections of many of my colleagues. That rule was over the objections of many of my colleagues. H.R. 1994 strips away front-end due process for all 348,728 employees, of whom 114,740 are veterans. Before we paint them as faceless bureaucrats, one of every three VA employees is a veteran who has laid their life on the line for our country. I think we need to talk about our VA employees with respect. Even my good friend, the chairman of the VA committee, has said the vast majority of the employees are good, hard-working, competent, good- intentioned people. They deserve to be treated fairly; they deserve to be treated with respect. Certainly, our frontline employees, our frontline employees, we need to protect them from a capricious, politically motivated manager who will fire them at will and intimidate them into not being a whistleblower. I reserve the balance of my time.
