§510 — Title 38 Veterans' Benefits | U.S. Code

Summary

The Secretary of Veterans Affairs can change how the Department’s offices and programs are organized. The Secretary may combine, close, move, or create offices and decide what each office and its leader will do, as long as those changes do not conflict with other laws. If a change will cut the number of full‑time employees at a field office or facility by 15% in one year, or by a total of 25% when added to cuts from the prior year, the Secretary must first send Congress a written plan and explanation. After sending that report, the Secretary must wait 45 days before acting. At least 30 of those days must be days when Congress is meeting without a break. Days when either House is not meeting during an adjournment longer than three days do not count toward that 30‑day period. If a Central Office unit that has 30 or more employees will lose 50% or more of its staff in one year, the Secretary must notify the Veterans’ Affairs committees at least 30 days before starting. A “covered field office or facility” means a VA site outside Central Office that has 25 or more employees or is a free‑standing outpatient clinic. The required written plan must show how many jobs will be cut or added, the duties affected, where work will move, why the change is needed, how veterans’ services may be affected, and cost estimates with supporting analysis. A reorganization is not treated the same way if the same number of full‑time employees keep doing the affected work after functions are moved or combined.

Title 38, §510

Veterans' Benefits — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Except to the extent inconsistent with law, the Secretary may—

(1)consolidate, eliminate, abolish, or redistribute the functions of the Administrations, offices, facilities, or activities in the Department;

(2)create new Administrations, offices, facilities, or activities in the Department; and

(3)fix the functions of any such Administration, office, facility, or activity and the duties and powers of their respective executive heads.

(b)The Secretary may not in any fiscal year implement an administrative reorganization described in subsection (c) unless the Secretary first submits to the appropriate committees of the Congress a report containing a detailed plan and justification for the administrative reorganization. No action to carry out such reorganization may be taken after the submission of such report until the end of a 45-day period following the date of the submission of the report, not less than 30 days of which shall be days during which Congress shall have been in continuous session. For purposes of the preceding sentence, continuity of a session of Congress is broken only by adjournment sine die, and there shall be excluded from the computation of any period of continuity of session any day during which either House of Congress is not in session during an adjournment of more than three days to a day certain.

(c)An administrative reorganization described in this subsection is an administrative reorganization of a covered field office or facility that involves a reduction during any fiscal year in the number of full-time equivalent employees with permanent duty stations at such office or facility—

(1)by 15 percent or more; or

(2)by a percent which, when added to the percent reduction made in the number of such employees with permanent duty stations at such office or facility during the preceding fiscal year, is 25 percent or more.

(d)(1)Not less than 30 days before the date on which the implementation of any administrative reorganization described in paragraph (2) of a unit in the Central Office is to begin, the Secretary shall transmit to the Committees on Veterans’ Affairs of the Senate and the House of Representatives a notification regarding the reorganization.

(2)Paragraph (1) applies to an administrative reorganization of any unit of the Central Office that is the duty station for 30 or more employees if the reorganization involves a reduction in any fiscal year in the number of full-time equivalent employees with permanent duty station in such unit by 50 percent or more.

(e)For purposes of this section, the term “administrative reorganization” does not include a consolidation or redistribution of functions at a covered field office or facility, or between components of the Veterans Benefits Administration and the Veterans Health Administration at a Department medical and regional office center, if after the consolidation or redistribution the same number of full-time equivalent employees continues to perform the affected functions at that field office, facility, or center.

(f)For purposes of this section:

(1)The term “covered field office or facility” means a Department office or facility outside the Central Office that is the permanent duty station for 25 or more employees or that is a free-standing outpatient clinic.

(2)The term “detailed plan and justification” means, with respect to an administrative reorganization, a written report that, at a minimum, includes the following:

(A)Specification of the number of employees by which each covered office or facility affected is to be reduced, the responsibilities of those employees, and the means by which the reduction is to be accomplished.

(B)Identification of any existing or planned office or facility at which the number of employees is to be increased and specification of the number and responsibilities of the additional employees at each such office or facility.

(C)A description of the changes in the functions carried out at any existing office or facility and the functions to be assigned to an office or facility not in existence on the date that the plan and justification are submitted pursuant to subsection (b).

(D)An explanation of the reasons for the determination that the reorganization is appropriate and advisable in terms of the statutory missions and long-term goals of the Department.

(E)A description of the effects that the reorganization may have on the provision of benefits and services to veterans and dependents of veterans (including the provision of benefits and services through offices and facilities of the Department not directly affected by the reorganization).

(F)Estimates of the costs of the reorganization and of the cost impact of the reorganization, together with analyses supporting those estimates.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Prior Provisions

Prior section 510, Pub. L. 85–857, Sept. 2, 1958, 72 Stat. 1135, provided monthly pension for persons who served in military or naval forces of Confederate States of America, prior to repeal by Pub. L. 94–169, title I, § 101(2)(F), Dec. 23, 1975, 89 Stat. 1014, effective Jan. 1, 1976. Provisions similar to those in this section were contained in section 210(b)(1), (2) of this title prior to repeal by Pub. L. 102–83, § 2(a).

Amendments

1996—Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 104–262 substituted “a 45-day period following the date of the submission of the report, not less than 30 days of which shall be days during which Congress shall have been in continuous session” for “a 90-day period of continuous session of Congress following the date of the submission of the report” in second sentence and “any period of continuity of session” for “such 90-day period” in third sentence.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Authority of Secretary of Veterans Affairs To Carry Out Specified Administrative Reorganization Pub. L. 102–54, § 12,

June 13, 1991, 105 Stat. 273, provided that: “(a) Authority for Administrative Reorganization.—The Secretary of Veterans Affairs may carry out the administrative reorganization described in subsection (b) without regard to section 210(b)(2) of title 38 [38 U.S.C. 510(b)–(f)], United States Code. “(b) Specified Reorganization.—Subsection (a) applies to the organizational realignment of management responsibility for the Department of Veterans Affairs Data Processing Centers, together with the corresponding organizational realignment of associated Information Resources Management operational components and functions within the Department of Veterans Affairs central office, as such realignment was described in the detailed plan and justification submitted by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs in [sic]

January 4, 1991, letters to the Chairmen of the Committees on Veterans’ Affairs of the Senate and the House of Representatives.” Inapplicability of Restrictions Pub. L. 101–312,

June 25, 1990, 104 Stat. 271, provided: “That (a) the Secretary of Veterans Affairs may proceed with the administrative reorganization described in subsection (b) of this Act without regard to section 210(b) [see 303, 510, 711] of title 38, United States Code. “(b) The administrative reorganization referred to in subsection (a) is the reorganization of the regional field offices of the Veterans Health Services and Research Administration of the Department of Veterans Affairs as that reorganization and related activity are described in (1) letters dated

January 22, 1990, and the detailed plan and justification enclosed therewith, submitted by the Secretary to the Committees on Veterans’ Affairs of the Senate and the House of Representatives pursuant to such section 210(b) [see 303, 510, 711], and (2) letters dated

April 17, 1990, submitted in supplementation thereof by the Secretary to such Committees.” section 15(b) of Pub. L. 100–527 provided that: “section 210(b) [see 303, 510, 711] of title 38, United States Code (as amended by subsection (a)), shall not apply to a reorganization of a unit of the Central Office of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs if the reorganization— “(1) is necessary in order to carry out the provisions of or

Amendments

made by this Act [see Tables for classification]; and “(2) is initiated within 6 months after the

Effective Date

of this Act [Mar. 15, 1989].”

§510 Authority to reorganize offices

Summary

Title 38, §510

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Prior Provisions

Amendments

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Amendments

Effective Date

Citations & Metadata