Congress passes long-sought VA accountability bill
WASHINGTON — Congress approved long-sought legislation Tuesday to make firing employees easier for the Department of Veterans Affairs, part of an effort urged by President Donald Trump to fix a struggling agency serving millions of veterans.
The House cleared the bill, 368-55, replacing an earlier version that Democrats had criticized as overly unfair to workers. The Senate passed the bipartisan legislation by voice vote last week. It will go to Trump later this week for his signature.
The measure comes after a 2014 scandal at the Phoenix VA medical center, where some veterans died while waiting months for appointments. During the presidential campaign, Trump promised to fire VA employees “who let our veterans down,” describing the government’s secondlargest agency and its more than 350,000 employees as “the most corrupt” and “incompetent.”
The bill’s passage “is GREAT news for veterans!” Trump tweeted Tuesday night. “I look forward to signing it!”
Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., who chairs the House Veterans Affairs Committee, described the legislation as a necessary first step in overhauling the VA. Congress will soon take up legislation to give veterans expanded access to doctors outside the VA.
“For far too long, the failures of the bad actors have tarnished the good name of all VA employees,” Roe said. “No effort toward real, wholesale reform at the department will ever be successful absent a strong culture of accountability first.”
The House vote came as investigations into possible collaboration between the Trump campaign and Russia continued to hang over much of Washington, largely stalling the administration’s biggest legislative initiatives. Attorney General Jeff Sessions testified Tuesday before a Senate panel on Russia contacts as House members took up the VA bill.
House leaders quickly touted progress on veterans’ issues.
“We’ve been talking about this for about three years. And we uncovered all the scandals at the VA. Now we’re making law,” said House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis. “Now we’re getting the veterans the kind of response and the kind of accountability they earned and deserved.”
The bill was backed by VA Secretary David Shulkin, who called the employee accountability process “clearly broken.” It would lower the burden of proof to fire employees, allowing a dismissal even if most evidence is in a worker’s favor.
The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union, opposed the bill. But the Senate-passed measure was viewed as more in balance with workers’ rights than a version passed by the House in March, mostly along party lines.
BEIRUT — The U.S. has deployed a truck-mounted missile system into Syria, an official said Wednesday, to a forward operating group of rebels and U.S. military advisers that have repeatedly clashed with government forces.
The deployment raises the stakes in eastern Syria, where Iranian-sponsored pro-government forces have outflanked U.S. advisers and rebels holding the Tanf border crossing to establish their own link to Iraq for the first time in years.
They are now waiting for pro-Iranian forces to link up with them on the Iraqi side of the border, while preparing to march on Islamic State positions to the north, in the Euphrates River Valley.
Shifting the HIMARS missile system into eastern Syria from Jordan will give the U.S. a precise, longrange weapon to protect its advisers and allies in Tanf, and to attack Islamic State militants farther downfield. It has a range of 186 miles.
The deployment also ensures that the military can protect itself from attacks in the area when weather would limit the ability of strike aircraft to reach there in time.
The Pentagon official requested anonymity to discuss unannounced military movements.
U.S.-backed rebels were advancing north along the Syrian-Iraqi frontier, against IS militants, when pro-government forces cut them off with a flanking maneuver last week.
U.S. special forces operators are embedded with the rebels in an advisory capacity, the Pentagon says, though they have fought alongside their allies in defensive battles. They hold two outposts in the desert region.
The U.S. central military command has said it remains committed to reaching and defeating the IS group in its strongholds along the Euphrates River, beginning with Boukamal, 137 miles northeast of Tanf.