TITLE 38 - US CODE - CHAPTER 7 - EMPLOYEES

38 USC 701 - Placement of employees in military installations

The Secretary may place employees of the Department in such Army, Navy, and Air Force installations as may be considered advisable for the purpose of adjudicating disability claims of, and giving aid and advice to, members of the Armed Forces who are about to be discharged or released from active military, naval, or air service.

38 USC 703 - Miscellaneous authorities respecting employees

(a) The Secretary may furnish and launder such wearing apparel as may be prescribed for employees in the performance of their official duties.
(b) The Secretary may transport children of Department employees located at isolated stations to and from school in available Government-owned automotive equipment.
(c) The Secretary may provide recreational facilities, supplies, and equipment for the use of patients in hospitals and employees in isolated installations.
(d) The Secretary may provide for the preparation, shipment, installation, and display of exhibits, photographic displays, moving pictures, and other visual educational information and descriptive material. For the purposes of the preceding sentence, the Secretary may purchase or rent equipment.
(e) The Secretary may reimburse employees for the cost of repairing or replacing their personal property damaged or destroyed by patients or domiciliary members while such employees are engaged in the performance of their official duties.
(f) 
(1) The Secretary, upon determining that an emergency situation exists and that such action is necessary for the effective conduct of the affairs of the Department, may use Government-owned, or leased, vehicles to transport employees to and from their place of employment and the nearest adequate public transportation or, if such public transportation is either unavailable or not feasible to use, to and from their place of employment and their home.
(2) The Secretary shall establish reasonable rates to cover the cost of the service rendered under this subsection, and all proceeds collected therefrom shall be applied to the applicable appropriation.

38 USC 705 - Telephone service for medical officers and facility directors

The Secretary may pay for official telephone service and rental in the field whenever incurred in case of official telephones for directors of centers, hospitals, independent clinics, domiciliaries, and medical officers of the Department where such telephones are installed in private residences or private apartments or quarters, when authorized under regulations prescribed by the Secretary.

38 USC 707 - Benefits for employees at overseas offices who are United States citizens

(a) The Secretary may, under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the President or the Presidents designee, provide to personnel of the Department who are United States citizens and are assigned by the Secretary to the Department offices in the Republic of the Philippines allowances and benefits similar to those provided by the following provisions of law:
(1) Section 905 of the Foreign Service Act of 1980 (relating to allowances to provide for the proper representation of the United States).
(2) Sections 901(1), (2), (3), (4), (7), (8), (9), (11), and (12) of the Foreign Service Act of 1980 (relating to travel expenses).
(3) Section 901(13) of the Foreign Service Act of 1980 (relating to transportation of automobiles).
(4) Section 903 of the Foreign Service Act of 1980 (relating to the return of personnel to the United States on leave of absence).
(5) Section 904(d) of the Foreign Service Act of 1980 (relating to payments by the United States of expenses for treating illness or injury of officers or employees and dependents requiring hospitalization).
(6) Section 5724a (c) of title 5 (relating to subsistence expenses for 60 days in connection with the return to the United States of the employee and such employees immediate family).
(7) Section 5724a (d) of title 5 (relating to the sale and purchase of the residence or settlement of an unexpired lease of the employee when transferred from one station to another station and both stations are in the United States, its territories or possessions, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico).
(b) The authority in subsection (a) supplements, but is not in lieu of, other allowances and benefits for overseas employees of the Department provided by title 5 and the Foreign Service Act of 1980 (22 U.S.C. 3901 et seq.).

38 USC 709 - Employment restrictions

(a) 
(1) Notwithstanding section 3134 (d) of title 5, the number of Senior Executive Service positions in the Department which are filled by noncareer appointees in any fiscal year may not at any time exceed 5 percent of the average number of senior executives employed in Senior Executive Service positions in the Department during the preceding fiscal year.
(2) For purposes of this subsection, the average number of senior executives employed in Senior Executive Service positions in the Department during a fiscal year shall be equal to 25 percent of the sum of the total number of senior executives employed in Senior Executive Service positions in the Department on the last day of each quarter of such fiscal year.
(b) The number of positions in the Department which may be excepted from the competitive service, on a temporary or permanent basis, because of their confidential or policy-determining character may not at any time exceed the equivalent of 15 positions.
(c) 
(1) Political affiliation or activity may not be taken into account in connection with the appointment of any person to any position in or to perform any service for the Department or in the assignment or advancement of any employee in the Department.
(2) Paragraph (1) shall not apply
(A) to the appointment of any person by the President under this title, other than the appointment of the Under Secretary for Health, the Under Secretary for Benefits, and the Inspector General; or
(B) to the appointment of any person to
(i)  a Senior Executive Service position as a noncareer appointee, or
(ii)  a position that is excepted from the competitive service, on a temporary or permanent basis, because of the confidential or policy-determining character of the position.

38 USC 711 - Grade reductions

(a) The Secretary may not implement a grade reduction described in subsection (b) unless the Secretary first submits to the Committees on Veterans Affairs of the Senate and House of Representatives a report containing a detailed plan for such reduction and a detailed justification for the plan. The report shall include a determination by the Secretary (together with data supporting such determination) that, in the personnel area concerned, the Department has a disproportionate number of employees at the salary grade or grades selected for reduction in comparison to the number of such employees at the salary levels involved who perform comparable functions in other departments and agencies of the Federal Government and in non-Federal entities. Any grade reduction described in such report may not take effect until the end of a period of 90 calendar days (not including any day on which either House of Congress is not in session) after the report is received by the committees.
(b) A grade reduction referred to in subsection (a) is a systematic reduction, for the purpose of reducing the average salary cost for Department employees described in subsection (c), in the number of such Department employees at a specific grade level.
(c) The employees referred to in subsection (b) are
(1) health-care personnel who are determined by the Secretary to be providing either direct patient-care services or services incident to direct patient-care services;
(2) individuals who meet the definition of professional employee as set forth in section 7103 (a)(15) of title 5; and
(3) individuals who are employed as computer specialists.
(d) Not later than the 45th day after the Secretary submits a report under subsection (a), the Comptroller General shall, upon request of either of such Committees, submit to such committees a report on the Secretarys compliance with such subsection. The Comptroller General shall include in the report the Comptroller Generals opinion as to the accuracy of the Secretarys determination (and of the data supporting such determination) made under such subsection.
(e) In the case of Department employees not described in subsection (c), the Secretary may not in any fiscal year implement a systematic reduction for the purpose of reducing the average salary cost for such Department employees that will result in a reduction in the number of such Department employees at any specific grade level at a rate greater than the rate of the reductions systematically being made in the numbers of employees at such grade level in all other agencies and departments of the Federal Government combined.

38 USC 712 - Repealed. Pub. L. 107103, title V, 509(a)(1), Dec. 27, 2001, 115 Stat. 997]

Section, added Pub. L. 103–446, title XI, § 1102(a), Nov. 2, 1994, 108 Stat. 4680; amended Pub. L. 104–262, title III, § 303, Oct. 9, 1996, 110 Stat. 3194; Pub. L. 105–33, title VIII, § 8023(e), Aug. 5, 1997, 111 Stat. 667; Pub. L. 105–368, title X, § 1005(b)(1), Nov. 11, 1998, 112 Stat. 3364, limited reduction of full-time equivalent positions in the Department of Veterans Affairs during the period beginning on Nov. 2, 1994, and ending on Sept. 30, 1999.