Veterans, Employees, and Taxpayers Protection Act of 2017 or the VET Protection Act of 2017
This bill directs the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to track the use of official time by VA employees without using estimates or time ranges.
Official time is time granted to an employee under federal labor-management relations provisions to perform representational or consultative functions during which the employee would otherwise be in a duty status.
The bill prohibits: (1) a VA employee from using official time to carry out political or lobbying activities; (2) specified health care employees, probationary employees, or employees above a certain salary level from using official time for any purpose; and (3) any VA employee from spending more than 25% of the time such employee would otherwise be in a duty status on official time.
An exclusive bargaining agreement shall allow a VA employee to terminate a voluntary dues allotment at any time.
A covered VA employee shall serve a two-year probationary period, after which the employee's supervisor shall determine within 90 days whether or not the appointment is permanent. A covered employee is any individual appointed to a permanent position within the competitive service or the Senior Executive Service and does not include specified health care practitioners.