A bipartisan pair of Pennsylvania lawmakers this month introduced legislation that would remove two controversial pieces of the 2017 VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act, although those provisions have already been blocked in federal court.

The Protecting VA Employees Act (H.R. 6682), introduced by Reps. Conor Lamb, D-Pa., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., would restore the Merit Systems Protection Board and arbitrators’ power to review adverse personnel actions, rather than just the evidence underlying those decisions, and it would increase the burden of proof for malfeasance that the VA must show from the current “substantial evidence” to a “preponderance of the evidence.”

Although the 2017 law was initially hailed as a needed reform to fight mismanagement and misbehavior at the department, employee groups and lawmakers have since criticized the department for focusing its efforts on punishing disproportionately low-ranking workers for minor offenses. Since then, federal judges have overturned the provisions governing how appellate bodies can review adverse personnel actions and the lower evidentiary standard.

In a statement, American Federation of Government Employees National VA Council President Alma Lee applauded the effort to codify the court decisions into law.

“Under the previous administration, the employees tasked with caring for our nation’s veterans had a target on their backs and were terminated at an alarming rate,” Lee said. “With this fix in the...

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