HR 3261119th CongressIn Committee

VA Employee Fairness Act of 2025

Introduced: May 7, 2025

Labor & EmploymentVeterans Affairs

Standard Summary

Comprehensive overview in 1-2 paragraphs

The VA Employee Fairness Act of 2025 (H.R. 3261) would change how collective bargaining for Veterans Health Administration (VHA) employees is governed by amending title 38 of the U.S. Code. Specifically, it would strike subsections (b), (c), and (d) of 38 U.S.C. 7422 and redesignate subsection (e) as subsection (b). In practical terms, this would remove several existing provisions about collective bargaining for VHA employees and leave only the currently retained subsection content, renamed. The bill also includes a safeguarding clause noting that the changes do not affect incentive pay and expedited hiring authorities under 38 U.S.C. § 706 or other similar laws. The bill was introduced in the House on May 7, 2025, by Rep. Takano with a broad group of co-sponsors and was referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs for consideration.

Key Points

1Repeals/removes: Subsections (b), (c), and (d) of 38 U.S.C. 7422, effectively eliminating several components of the current VHA collective bargaining framework.
2Redesignation: Subsection (e) would be redesignated as subsection (b), preserving some part of the existing authority but under a new numbering scheme.
3Scope preservation: The amendments are explicitly not intended to affect the Secretary of Veterans Affairs’ authority regarding incentive pay and expedited hiring under section 706 of title 38, U.S.C. or other similar provisions.
4Purpose and framing: The bill, titled the VA Employee Fairness Act of 2025, aims to modify the authorities relating to collective bargaining of VHA employees.
5Status and process: Introduced in the House on May 7, 2025, and referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.

Impact Areas

Primary group/area affected: Employees of the Veterans Health Administration and their collective bargaining representatives. The changes could alter or reduce the existing bargaining, grievance, or labor-relations mechanisms available to VHA staff.Secondary group/area affected: VA management and human resources operations, including how labor relations are coordinated within VHA facilities and programs.Additional impacts: Potential ripple effects on workplace operations, staff recruitment and retention, and patient care operations if collective bargaining practices are reorganized or narrowed. The explicit preservation of incentive pay and expedited hiring authorities suggests the bill targets labor relations structures while leaving pay and hiring tools intact. Federal labor law considerations and implementation details would likely follow once the text of the remaining provisions is clarified.

Generated by gpt-5-nano on Oct 7, 2025