Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) are asking federal agencies to explain $700 million in salaries paid to employees on administrative leave, particularly those off work for a year or more.
Issa and Grassley requested a report on paid leave from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). It found that over a three-year period, more than 57,000 employees of 17 federal agencies were on paid leave for more than a month. Nearly 4,000 of those were off work for three to 12 months and another 263 for one to three years. The most common reason for the leaves, according to the report, was “personal matters.”
On Tuesday, the Republicans sent letters to the 17 agencies asking them to account for their respective number of employees on extended leave. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) received a special question because it had the greatest rate of on-leave employees.
“Given the GAO’s report showing the incredible amount of money being spent on leave, Congress must know how it is possible that agencies’ current processes result in gross overuse of paid administrative leave, wasting taxpayer funds,” Issa, the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said. “The GAO reported that the VA continued to pay nearly 6,000 workers for one to six months, with no obligation on these employees to work. The taxpayers have the right to know why their money was spent on paid administrative leave instead of caring for our nation’s veterans.”