Fiscal Year 2016 Department of Veterans Affairs Seismic Safety and Construction Authorization Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4590) to authorize the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to carry out certain major medical facility projects for which appropriations are being made for fiscal year 2016, and for other purposes, as amended.

The Clerk read the title of the bill.

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Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 4590, as amended, the Fiscal Year 2016 Department of Veterans Affairs Seismic Safety and Construction Authorization Act.

This bill, which I have sponsored, would authorize seven major medical facility projects in San Francisco, California; West Los Angeles, California; Long Beach, California; Alameda, California; Livermore, California; Perry Point, Maryland; and American Lake, Washington.

These projects will correct seismic safety issues in high-risk VA medical facilities, provide housing and support services for homeless veterans, increase the availability of outpatient care, and replace outdated buildings with modern ones that are better suited to providing the high-quality care that our veterans deserve. Each of these projects was requested in the President's budget submission for fiscal year 2016, and funds have already been appropriated for them.

Many in this Chamber are well aware of the debacle that characterized VA's management of the Denver replacement hospital facility construction project. Cost overruns and extensive delays had become the status quo for mostly all VA major construction projects. In the case of Denver, the price tag more than doubled from the initial estimate. As a result of that, for all projects costing over $100 million going forward, we now call them ``super construction'' projects. A non-VA entity will assume project management responsibilities.

Of the seven projects to be authorized in this bill, six of them meet the super construction criteria. The Army Corps of Engineers will be managing those six projects. In light of that, I have reduced the total authorization for these projects slightly, since VA should no longer require funds that have been built into the projects for VA construction management.

With little transparency into what is actually required for VA to manage these projects supposedly in support of the Army Corps of Engineers, I hesitate to authorize any additional management funding without a full accounting of what is essential to completely execute these projects. This bill would require that VA would provide a full accounting of management expenditures for these projects, going forward.

Mr. Speaker, before we conclude debate on the VA construction bill, I feel obliged to discuss the absence of one particular project--the new replacement medical facility in Louisville, Kentucky.

First, the proposed construction project in Louisville has been criticized by local stakeholders who have expressed concerns regarding the parcel of land that VA has proposed constructing this new facility on. Those concerns were validated by the committee following an on-site investigation last year, and, as a result, VA has initiated an environmental impact study that is ongoing today. The EIS will take a year or more to complete and could very well result in a determination that VA pursue a different approach to ensuring that Louisville area veterans are provided the high-quality care they earned and deserve.

Given that, I believe it would be untimely and inappropriate for Congress to authorize this project before the EIS is complete. That conclusion is shared by VA construction officials, who stated themselves, in a briefing with committee staff earlier this year, that it would be premature to authorize the Louisville project at this time since the EIS is in progress and the way ahead for the project is uncertain.

Finally, VA has a disastrous history of building VA hospitals on time and on budget. The Denver construction project is $1 billion--$1 billion--over budget.

After opening the new Orlando hospital years late and hundreds of millions over budget, VA quietly settled with the Orlando hospital contractor for an additional $213 million over the budget. And the New Orleans hospital is $100 million over budget right now. In light of this track record, the strictest of scrutiny needs to be applied to major hospital projects going forward, and that must begin with Louisville.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation.

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