EXCLUSIVE: A right-leaning research group is claiming that the Department of Veterans Affairs under the Biden administration back paid more than $130 million to 1,700 people fired under a Trump-era law that allows for easier accountability for federal employees.
Through Freedom of Information Act filings, the America First Policy Institute will soon release the results of its probe.
Its investigation also found the VA reinstated more than 100 terminated employees who were fired for indiscretions ranging from negligence to sleeping on the job. Dozens of dismissals accounted for in documents reviewed by Fox News Digital did not have other specific offenses listed with them.
Following the passage of the 2017 law, the VA reportedly failed to bargain with its public employee union and was ordered to attend arbitration. Because of this, according to a source familiar, the VA could have been required to rehire all previously terminated employees, including those fired for “grievous misconduct” like patient abuse or harassment.
The agency ultimately reached a settlement with the union in 2023 and only 106 out of 1,700 employees offered financial compensation so far have been reinstated.
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The Department of Veterans Affairs building is seen in Washington, D.C., on July 22, 2019. (ALASTAIR PIKE/AFP via Getty Images)
The investigation found that of the more than 4,000 terminated employees, more than 1,700 received back pay or compensation.
At that rate, back pay to the entire group of former employees would total $300 million, a statement from AFPI read.
Former Trump VA Secretary Robert Wilkie said the current administration has “let down American veterans and taxpayers” with such actions.
“Those fired for mistreating American veterans should not even be allowed near the VA, much less reinstated,” said Wilkie, now a fellow at AFPI’s Center for American Security.
“Instead of litigating these baseless grievances or working with Congress to strengthen the Accountability Act, the Biden-Harris administration surrendered to the government employee union. Taxpayers and veterans who receive care from poor performers will pay the price.”
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A U.S. Army and Vietnam War veteran attends a Memorial Day event at the Santa Fe National Cemetery in Santa Fe, N.M. (Robert Alexander/Getty Images)
In 2017, under the previous administration, VA failed to bargain with AFGE on the implementation of this law — as legally required by VA’s contract. As a result, the agency was repeatedly court-ordered to reinstate fired employees, the source said.
But current VA leadership is adamant that no employee previously fired for serious offenses like patient abuse has been reinstated.
“VA has ensured that bad actors cannot return to work and saved taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars,” a department spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
“The [Trump] administration’s implementation of the 2017 law was repeatedly struck down by the courts, putting VA at risk of having to rehire individuals who committed patient abuse, harassment, and criminal activity — and putting taxpayers on the hook for more than $1 billion.”
The spokesperson said the VA will continue to hold employees accountable who mistreat patients or commit other transgressions, and that anyone who is reinstated will be held to that high standard or be dismissed.
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“Veterans trust VA at the highest rate in history — and we are delivering more care and more benefits to more veterans than ever before,” they said.
The law Trump signed, authored by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., was the Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act — meant to do what its title laid out.
It gave the agency new authority to terminate employees for poor performance or misconduct more quickly, and led to multiple grievances being filed by the public employee union AFGE.
Some of the reinstated employees were originally terminated for sleeping on the job, unauthorized access to employee medical records and failure to follow procedures, according to FOIA documents obtained by Fox News Digital.