20. Department of Veterans Affairs · Minor

Broaden VA pay and benefits for critical non-medical skill sets

Not started

Printed page 652 20. Department of Veterans Affairs

“Broaden pay and benefits in critical VA skill sets (beyond medical care occupations) to be more competitive with private-sector industry. IT, acquisition, cyber, and economists are some examples of skill sets that are difficult for the VA to recruit, largely because of the limitations of federal pay scales.”

What has happened

Apr 1, 2026 Not started
No pay or benefit authority was broadened beyond medical occupations, and the workforce investment in the named skill sets was cut. VA's FY2027 IT submission reduces IT Human Capital Management by 37.4% to $17.3 million, "driven primarily by the completion of the Cyber Workforce Services initiative and the planned drawdown of Professional Development Support Services, reflecting the closeout of several workforce development efforts", leaving "a leaner, execution-focused human capital portfolio". Every VA pay action published in the window runs to clinical occupations — the annual Title 38 pay ranges for physicians, dentists, podiatrists and optometrists, a temporary increase to the annual aggregate pay limit for nurse anesthetists listed in the VA Publications directive index at 2025-10-27, and the Employee Recognition and Awards update extending superior-performance awards to optometrists (VA Directive 5017/6, 2026-07-16, read in full). A Federal Register phrase search for "special salary rate" across VA documents since 2025-01-20 returns zero. Nothing reaches IT, acquisition, cyber or economists.
- VA FY2027 Budget Submission, Volume 5 — IT Human Capital Management $17.3 million, -$10.3 million (-37.4%), on closeout of Cyber Workforce Services and drawdown of Professional Development Support Services
  Primary Executive branch Apr 1, 2026

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

Recorded under §3b’s “moved the other way” rule: the contrary Primary Evidence rides on the not started event rather than sitting in this body.
The one in-window bill on VA pay caps found in the Corpus — “to amend title 38, United States Code, to eliminate the cap on the number of waivers to certain pay limitations that the Secretary of Veterans Affairs may issue for critical health care personnel of the Department of Veterans Affairs”, 2026-07-06 — is again clinical and has not passed.

Action: expand
Object: VA pay and benefits for critical skill sets
ID: 1801