A vote on freezing future bonuses to top officials in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is planned in the House of Representatives this week. The legislation in question specifies that bonuses will not be given until the backlog of veterans waiting for disability benefits is reduced to below 100,000 from the current 400,000.

But the fact is there should be no bonuses at all, with or without the backlog in question.

The government isn’t private business and industry. It operates with taxpayers’ dollars.

Bonuses should be out of the question.

The officials who have been receiving bonuses accepted their jobs on the premise of carrying out their responsibilities to the best of their abilities — at the pay level on which they were hired. That agreement on pay should not have included any presumption that they would be eligible for a bonus for coming to work and doing their job.

What’s perplexing about the VA bonuses is that this extra compensation was handed out even when job performance left something to be desired.

Hefty bonuses were handed out even when the officials in question crafted a budget that fell $1 billion short.

VA Secretary Jim Nicholson defended the bonuses on the grounds that the officials in question could get higher salaries in private business.

“They could be making tremendous money on the outside,” he said. “But they’re staying.”

But there are plenty of fringe benefits tied to government service that make that employment desirable, even without bonuses, and Nicholson should acknowledge that.

House members should have no reluctance in passing the bonus legislation in question, which was introduced by Rep. John Hall, D-N.Y. But the legislation would be more pleasing to taxpayers if it slapped a total ban on future bonuses.

The Senate should consider passing a competing bill to that effect. Hopefully a compromise more suitable to the taxpayers would emerge.

Nicholson told House members Wednesday that he would work hard to improve veterans’ care and said he would take personal responsibility for implementing a presidential task force’s recommendations.

He also should commit himself to tougher scrutiny of the performance of other top VA officials, with the promise not to reward performance that doesn’t measure up to veterans’ needs.