A bill to establish a pilot program on partnership agreements to construct new facilities for the Department…

This bill authorizes the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to carry out a program under which it may enter into up to five partnership arrangements with a state or local authority, a tax exempt non-profit corporation, a limited liability corporation, a private entity, a donor, or other non-federal entity to conduct:

• super construction projects (a project for the construction, alteration, or acquisition of a medical facility involving a total expenditure of more than $100 million);
• major medical facility projects (a project for the construction, alteration, or acquisition of a medical facility involving a total expenditure of more than $10 million, excluding an acquisition by exchange); or
• major construction projects to construct a new cemeteries or to develop additional gravesites or columbarium niches at existing cemeteries.

The VA may select projects for which: (1) Congress has appropriated partial funding or the VA has identified a need through its long-range capital planning process by listing it on the Major Construction Strategic Capital Investment Planning priority list included in the annual budget submitted to Congress by the President, and (2) a non-federal entity has entered into or is willing to enter into a formal agreement with the VA to independently finance or donate an acceptable amount of project funds at no additional cost to the federal government.

One of the non-federal entity partnership agreements shall be a project to design, finance, and construct a new ambulatory care center in Omaha, Nebraska.

Each partnership agreement shall require the partner entity to:

• conduct necessary environmental and historic preservation due diligence, comply with local zoning requirements, and obtain any permits required for construction;
• use construction standards required of the VA when designing and building the project, except to the extent the VA determines otherwise; and
  
• establish a Board of Directors to oversee the project.

The VA shall include in the annual budget submitted to Congress by the President information regarding any projects conducted under this bill during the preceding year.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov