A federal appellate court handed down a pair of rulings Thursday that could make it somewhat more difficult to fire Department of Veterans Affairs employees, while also adding some legal clarity to portions of a 2017 VA accountability law that Congress left a bit vague.
In one opinion, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit determined that when VA officials are considering disciplining or firing an employee, the worker’s alleged misconduct needs to be proven by a preponderance of the evidence — meaning it’s more likely than not that the misbehavior really happened. That’s the same standard used to judge civil servants’ misconduct at all other federal agencies.
