Sec. 101. Establishment of system and standards for accountability and adverse actions
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Subchapter I of chapter 7 of title 38, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new section: Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of the Leadership, Engagement, Accountability, and Development Act of 2023 , the Secretary shall establish a system and standards for accountability and adverse action preparation and proposal (hereafter referred to as standards ). In carrying out subsection (a), the Secretary shall— determine distinct steps and processes whereby any adverse action is investigated, prepared, and proposed for an employee of the Department; develop and distribute training on the processes determined pursuant to paragraph (1), which shall be a required annual training across the enterprise and may differ for each employee based on the seniority, role, and Administration within the Department of the employee; collect and distribute best practices and resources on accountability reporting and investigations, preparation, and proposal of adverse actions for human resources offices of the Department, the Office of General Counsel, and heads of facilities and offices of the Department, including relevant regional offices, to distribute to their relevant staff across the enterprise; and monitor the implementation of the standards at facilities of the Department, including monitoring— the number of adverse actions issued versus number overturned in the three fiscal years prior; metrics for the time taken from allegation of improper conduct or performance raised to an official proposal being issued; quality, frequency, and comprehension of training, information, and education provided to employees regarding accountability and adverse actions; percentage of staff that completed the training developed and distributed pursuant to paragraph
(2)over the past three fiscal years; number of external and internal investigations that resulted in at least one substantiated claim of a prohibited personnel action set forth under section 731(c) of this title; responses to relevant surveys conducted by the Department, including those established by section 103 of the LEAD Act of 2023 ; grievances filed by labor organizations relative to the number of collective bargaining unit employees and whether or not they were adjudicated in favor of the labor organization; and such other factors as the Secretary considers appropriate to monitor the accountability and due process culture of facilities, offices, Administrations, and other relevant elements of the Department; and In carrying out this section, the Secretary shall consult with the following: Representatives of labor organizations. The Inspector General of the Department. The Assistant Secretary for Accountability and Whistleblower Protection. The Assistant Under Secretary for Health for Transparency, Engagement, Accountability, and Management. Employees of the Department across the enterprise. The Comptroller General of the United States. The Special Counsel. Such others as the Secretary considers appropriate. In this section, the term adverse action means a personnel action taken by the Department against an employee of the Department. Term adverse action includes a removal, demotion, suspension, and any other relevant significant personnel action taken by the Department against an employee of the Department. . The table of sections at the beginning of chapter 7 of such title is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 728 the following new item: 729. Accountability and adverse action system and standards. .