Hire Veteran Health Heroes Act of 2020

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 7441 To expedite hiring by the Department of Veterans Affairs of medical depart- ment personnel separating from the Armed Forces, and for other pur- poses. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JULY 1, 2020 Mrs. BROOKS of Indiana (for herself and Miss RICE of New York) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Af- fairs, and in addition to the Committee on Armed Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consider- ation of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned A BILL To expedite hiring by the Department of Veterans Affairs of medical department personnel separating from the Armed Forces, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Hire Veteran Health 4 Heroes Act of 2020’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:33 Jul 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7441.IH H7441 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 7441 IH SEC. 2. EXPEDITED HIRING BY DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS 1 AFFAIRS OF MEDICAL DEPARTMENT PER- 2 SONNEL SEPARATING FROM THE ARMED 3 FORCES. 4 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Veterans Af- 5 fairs, in consultation with the Secretary of Defense, shall 6 conduct recruitment for covered medical personnel posi- 7 tions from among medical department personnel of the 8 Department of Defense who hold medical military occupa- 9 tional specialties and are separating from the Armed 10 Forces. 11 (b) TRANSITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM.—Recruit- 12 ment shall be conducted under subsection (a) for sepa- 13 rating members of the Armed Forces as part of the Tran- 14 sition Assistance Program conducted for such members. 15 (c) ELEMENTS OF RECRUITMENT.— 16 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Defense, in 17 collaboration with the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, 18 shall schedule regular briefing times for all medical 19 department personnel of the Department of Defense 20 who are separating from the Armed Forces to be 21 briefed by a supervisor or technician from a human 22 resources office of the Veterans Health Administra- 23 tion on— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:33 Jul 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7441.IH H7441 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 7441 IH (A) employment opportunities with the De- 1 partment of Veterans Affairs throughout the 2 United States; 3 (B) options for careers with the Depart- 4 ment in a covered medical personnel position; 5 and 6 (C) the expedited recruitment and hiring 7 process under this section. 8 (2) ONE-ON-ONE APPOINTMENTS.—The super- 9 visor or technician conducting the briefing under 10 paragraph (1) shall— 11 (A) schedule a one-on-one appointment for 12 each separating medical department personnel 13 member who wishes to meet to review covered 14 medical personnel positions that are available; 15 and 16 (B) accept applications for such positions. 17 (d) HIRING.— 18 (1) TENTATIVE OFFER.— 19 (A) IN GENERAL.—The supervisor or tech- 20 nician conducting the briefing under subsection 21 (c)(1) and accepting applications under sub- 22 section (c)(2)(B) may tentatively offer appli- 23 cants for covered medical personnel positions 24 who agree to accept the position and meet a 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:33 Jul 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7441.IH H7441 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 7441 IH preliminary qualification review established by 1 the Secretary of Veterans Affairs such a posi- 2 tion at a medical facility of the Department of 3 Veterans Affairs. 4 (B) TIMING.—A tentative offer under sub- 5 paragraph (A) to a member of the Armed 6 Forces participating in the recruitment and hir- 7 ing process under this section may be made 8 during the period beginning on the date that is 9 90 days before the separation of the member 10 from the Armed Forces and ending on the date 11 that is 90 days after such separation. 12 (2) FINAL OFFER.—After conducting the ten- 13 tative offer process for an individual under para- 14 graph (1), the supervisor or technician shall trans- 15 mit information on and credentials for the individual 16 to the medical facility at which the individual would 17 be hired for final verification and interviews to com- 18 plete the hiring process and possibly present a final 19 offer. 20 (3) CONDUCT OF HIRING PROCESS.—Notwith- 21 standing any other provision of law, the Secretary 22 may hire individuals under this section through di- 23 rect, non-competitive, and other hiring processes as 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:33 Jul 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7441.IH H7441 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 7441 IH the Secretary considers appropriate to carry out this 1 section. 2 (e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 3 (1) COVERED MEDICAL PERSONNEL POSI- 4 TION.—The term ‘‘covered medical personnel posi- 5 tion’’ means a medical personnel position at all 6 grades within the Department of Veterans Affairs 7 employed under— 8 (A) the General Schedule under subchapter 9 III of chapter 53 of title 5, United States Code; 10 (B) the prevailing rate system under sub- 11 chapter IV of such chapter; 12 (C) section 7425 of title 38, United States 13 Code; or 14 (D) a hybrid authority. 15 (2) TRANSITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM.—The 16 term ‘‘Transition Assistance Program’’ means the 17 Transition Assistance Program under sections 1142 18 and 1144 of title 10, United States Code. 19 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:33 Jul 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H7441.IH H7441 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS