VA Can’t Use Accountability Law to Punish Past Bad Acts

The Veterans Affairs Department can’t use a 2017 federal law to remove one of its chief pharmacists for alleged policy violations that occurred before the law’s enactment, the Federal Circuit said Tuesday.

The VA used the Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act of 2017 to fire Jeffrey Sayers, who had been based in Los Angeles, for violations of department pharmacy policies that were discovered beginning in June 2016.

The law, crafted to streamline authority to discipline employees, lacks a clear congressional directive that its new evidentiary standards and judicial review procedures may be applied retroactively, Judge Todd ...