IIA 
108TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1720
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 
OCTOBER 30, 2003
Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs 
AN ACT 
To authorize the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to carry out 
construction projects for the purpose of improving, ren-
ovating, establishing, and updating patient care facilities 
at Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers, to 
provide by law for the establishment and functions of 
the Office of Research Oversight in the Veterans Health 
Administration of the Department of Veterans Affairs, 
and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘Veterans Health Care Facilities Capital Improvement 
Act’’. 
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 
this Act is as follows:
Sec.
1. Short title. 
Sec.
2. Authorization of major medical facility projects for patient care im-
provements. 
Sec.
3. Authorization of major medical facility projects and leases. 
Sec.
4. Authorization of major medical facility projects, former Fitzsimons 
Army Medical Center, Aurora, Colorado. 
Sec.
5. Limitation on disposal of Lakeside Division, Department of Veterans 
Affairs medical facilities, Chicago, Illinois. 
Sec.
6. Plans for facilities in southern New Jersey and far South Texas. 
Sec.
7. Increase in major medical facility construction cost threshold. 
Sec.
8. Study and report on feasibility of coordination of veterans health care 
services in South Carolina with new university medical center. 
Sec.
9. Name of Department of Veterans Affairs health care facility, Chicago, 
Illinois. 
Sec. 10. Name of Department of Veterans Affairs outpatient clinic, New Lon-
don, Connecticut. 
Sec. 11. Office of Research Oversight in Veterans Health Administration.
SEC. 2. AUTHORIZATION OF MAJOR MEDICAL FACILITY 
PROJECTS FOR PATIENT CARE IMPROVE-
MENTS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—(1) Subject to paragraph (3), the 
Secretary of Veterans Affairs is authorized to carry out 
major medical facility projects in accordance with this sec-
tion, using funds appropriated for fiscal year 2004 or 
2005 pursuant to subsection (e). The cost of any such 
project may not exceed—
(A) $100,000,000 in fiscal year 2004; and 
(B) $125,000,000 in fiscal year 2005.
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(2) Projects carried out under this section are not 
subject to section 8104(a)(2) of title 38, United States 
Code. 
(3) The Secretary may not award a contract by rea-
son of the authorization provided by paragraph (1) until 
after the Secretary has awarded a contract for each con-
struction project authorized by section 3(a) and a contract 
for each lease authorized by section 3(d). 
(b) TYPE
OF PROJECTS.—A project carried out 
under subsection (a) may be carried out only at a Depart-
ment of Veterans Affairs medical center and only for the 
purpose of one or more of the following: 
(1) Improving a patient care facility. 
(2) Replacing a patient care facility. 
(3) Renovating a patient care facility. 
(4) Updating a patient care facility to contem-
porary standards. 
(5) Establishing a new patient care facility at 
a location where no Department patient care facility 
exists. 
(6) Improving, replacing, or renovating a re-
search facility or updating such a facility to contem-
porary standards. 
(c) PURPOSE OF PROJECTS.—In selecting medical 
centers for projects under subsection (a), the Secretary
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shall select projects to improve, replace, renovate, update, 
or establish facilities to achieve one or more of the fol-
lowing: 
(1) Seismic protection improvements related to 
patient safety (or, in the case of a research facility, 
patient or employee safety). 
(2) Fire safety improvements. 
(3) Improvements to utility systems and ancil-
lary patient care facilities (including such systems 
and facilities that may be exclusively associated with 
research facilities). 
(4) Improved accommodation for persons with 
disabilities, including barrier-free access. 
(5) Improvements at patient care facilities to 
specialized programs of the Department, including 
the following: 
(A) Blind rehabilitation centers. 
(B) Inpatient and residential programs for 
seriously mentally ill veterans, including mental 
illness research, education, and clinical centers. 
(C) Residential and rehabilitation pro-
grams for veterans with substance-use dis-
orders. 
(D) Physical medicine and rehabilitation 
activities.
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(E) Long-term care, including geriatric re-
search, education, and clinical centers, adult 
day care centers, and nursing home care facili-
ties. 
(F) Amputation care, including facilities 
for prosthetics, orthotics programs, and sensory 
aids. 
(G) Spinal cord injury centers. 
(H) Traumatic brain injury programs. 
(I) Women veterans’ health programs (in-
cluding particularly programs involving privacy 
and accommodation for female patients). 
(J) Facilities for hospice and palliative 
care programs. 
(d) REVIEW PROCESS.—(1) The Secretary shall pro-
vide that, before a project is submitted to the Secretary 
with a recommendation that it be approved as a project 
to be carried out under the authority of this section, the 
project shall be reviewed by a board within the Depart-
ment of Veterans Affairs that is independent of the Vet-
erans Health Administration and that is constituted by 
the Secretary to evaluate capital investment projects. The 
board shall review such project to determine the project’s 
relevance to the medical care mission of the Department 
and whether the project improves, renovates, repairs, es-
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tablishes, or updates facilities of the Department in ac-
cordance with this section. 
(2) In selecting projects to be carried out under the 
authority provided by this section, the Secretary shall con-
sider the recommendations of the board under paragraph 
(1). In any case in which the Secretary approves a project 
to be carried out under this section that was not rec-
ommended for such approval by the board under para-
graph (1), the Secretary shall include in the report of the 
Secretary under subsection (g)(2) notice of such approval 
and the Secretary’s reasons for not following the rec-
ommendation of the board with respect to that project. 
(e) AUTHORIZATION
OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 
are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary of Vet-
erans Affairs for the Construction, Major Projects, ac-
count for projects under this section—
(1) $167,900,000 for fiscal year 2004; and 
(2) $600,000,000 for fiscal year 2005. 
(f) LIMITATION.—Projects may be carried out under 
this section only using funds appropriated pursuant to the 
authorization of appropriations in subsection (e), except 
that funds appropriated for advance planning may be used 
for the purposes for which appropriated in connection with 
such projects.
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(g) REPORTS.—(1) Not later than April 1, 2005, the 
Comptroller General shall submit to the Committees on 
Veterans’ Affairs and on Appropriations of the Senate and 
House of Representatives a report evaluating the advan-
tages and disadvantages of congressional authorization for 
projects of the type described in subsection (b) through 
general authorization as provided by subsection (a), rather 
than through specific authorization as would otherwise be 
applicable under section 8104(a)(2) of title 38, United 
States Code. Such report shall include a description of the 
actions of the Secretary of Veterans Affairs during fiscal 
year 2004 to select and carry out projects under this sec-
tion. 
(2) Not later than 120 days after the date on which 
the site for the final project under this section for each 
such fiscal year is selected, the Secretary shall submit to 
the committees referred to in paragraph (1) a report on 
the authorization process under this section. The Sec-
retary shall include in each such report the following: 
(A) A listing by project of each such project se-
lected by the Secretary under that section, together 
with a prospectus description of the purposes of the 
project, the estimated cost of the project, and a 
statement attesting to the review of the project 
under subsection (c), and, if that project was not
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recommended by the board, the Secretary’s justifica-
tion under subsection (d) for not following the rec-
ommendation of the board. 
(B) An assessment of the utility to the Depart-
ment of Veterans Affairs of that authorization proc-
ess. 
(C) Such recommendations as the Secretary 
considers appropriate for future congressional policy 
for authorizations of major and minor medical facil-
ity construction projects for the Department of Vet-
erans Affairs. 
(D) Any other matter that the Secretary con-
siders to be appropriate with respect to oversight by 
Congress of capital facilities projects of the Depart-
ment of Veterans Affairs. 
SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION OF MAJOR MEDICAL FACILITY 
PROJECTS AND LEASES. 
(a) PROJECT AUTHORIZATIONS.—The Secretary of 
Veterans Affairs may carry out the following major med-
ical facility projects, with each project to be carried out 
in the amount specified for that project: 
(1) Construction of a new bed tower to consoli-
date two inpatient sites of care in inner city Chicago 
at the West Side Division of the Department of Vet-
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erans Affairs health care system in Chicago, Illinois, 
in an amount not to exceed $98,500,000. 
(2) Seismic corrections to strengthen Medical 
Center Building 1 of the Department of Veterans 
Affairs health care system in San Diego, California, 
in an amount not to exceed $48,600,000. 
(3) A project for (A) renovation of all inpatient 
care wards at the West Haven, Connecticut, facility 
of the Department of Veterans Affairs health system 
in Connecticut to improve the environment of care 
and enhance safety, privacy, and accessibility, and 
(B) establishment of a consolidated medical research 
facility at that facility, in an amount not to exceed 
$50,000,000. 
(4) Construction of a medical facility on avail-
able Federal land at the Defense Supply Center, Co-
lumbus, Ohio, in an amount not to exceed 
$90,000,000. 
(5) Construction of a Department of Veterans 
Affairs-Department of Navy joint venture, com-
prehensive outpatient medical care facility to be built 
on the grounds of the Pensacola Naval Air Station, 
Pensacola, Florida, in an amount not to exceed 
$45,000,000.
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(b) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 
authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary of Veterans 
Affairs for fiscal year 2004 for the Construction, Major 
Projects, account $332,100,000 for the projects author-
ized in subsection (a). 
(c) LIMITATION.—The projects authorized in sub-
section (a) may only be carried out using—
(1) funds appropriated for fiscal year 2004 pur-
suant to the authorization of appropriations in sub-
section (b); 
(2) funds appropriated for Construction, Major 
Projects, for a fiscal year before fiscal year 2004 
that remain available for obligation; and 
(3) funds appropriated for Construction, Major 
Projects, for fiscal year 2004 for a category of activ-
ity not specific to a project. 
(d) AUTHORIZATION OF MAJOR MEDICAL FACILITY 
LEASES.—The Secretary of Veterans Affairs may enter 
into leases as follows: 
(1) For an outpatient clinic in Charlotte, North 
Carolina, in an amount not to exceed $3,000,000. 
(2) For facilities for a multi-specialty out-
patient clinic for the Veterans Health Administra-
tion and a satellite office for the Veterans Benefits
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Administration in Clark County, Nevada, at an an-
nual lease amount not to exceed $6,500,000. 
(3) For facilities authorized in section 4 at the 
site of the former Fitzsimons Army Medical Center, 
Aurora, Colorado, in an amount not to exceed 
$30,000,000. 
SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF MAJOR MEDICAL FACILITY 
PROJECTS, FORMER FITZSIMONS ARMY MED-
ICAL CENTER, AURORA, COLORADO. 
(a) AUTHORIZATION.—The Secretary of Veterans Af-
fairs may carry out major medical facility projects under 
section 8104 of title 38, United States Code, at the site 
of the former Fitzsimons Army Medical Center, Aurora, 
Colorado. Projects to be carried out at such site shall be 
selected by the Secretary and may include inpatient and 
outpatient facilities providing acute, sub-acute, primary, 
and long-term care services. The cost of projects under 
this section shall be limited to—
(1) an amount not to exceed a total of 
$300,000,000 if either direct construction or a com-
bination of direct construction and leasing is selected 
by the Secretary under subsection (b); and 
(2) no more than $30,000,000 per year in leas-
ing costs if a leasing option is selected by the Sec-
retary as the sole option under subsection (b).
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(b) SELECTION OF OPTION.—The Secretary of Vet-
erans shall select the option to carry out the authority pro-
vided in subsection (a) of either—
(1) direct construction by the Department of 
Veterans Affairs or a combination of direct construc-
tion and leasing; or 
(2) leasing alone. 
(c) CONSULTATION
WITH
SECRETARY
OF
DE-
FENSE.—The Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall consult 
with the Secretary of Defense in carrying out this section. 
Such consultation shall include consideration of estab-
lishing a Department of Veterans Affairs-Department of 
Defense joint health-care venture at the site of the project 
or projects under subsection (a). 
(d) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 
authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary of Veterans 
Affairs for fiscal years 2004, 2005, and 2006 for ‘‘Con-
struction, Major Projects’’ for the purposes authorized in 
subsection (a). 
(e) LIMITATION.—The projects authorized in sub-
section (a) may only be carried out using—
(1) funds appropriated for fiscal year 2004, 
2005, or 2006 pursuant to the authorization of ap-
propriations in subsection (a);
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(2) funds appropriated for Construction, Major 
Projects, for a fiscal year before fiscal year 2004 
that remain available for obligation; and 
(3) funds appropriated for Construction, Major 
Projects, for fiscal year 2004, 2005, or 2006 for a 
category of activity not specific to a project. 
(f) REPORT
TO CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES.—
After complying with applicable provisions of the National 
Environmental Policy Act of 1969, but not later than one 
year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Sec-
retary shall submit to the Committees on Appropriations 
and the Committees on Veterans’ Affairs of the Senate 
and House of Representatives a report on this section. The 
report shall include the following: 
(1) Notice of the option selected by the Sec-
retary pursuant to subsection (b) to carry out the 
authority provided by subsection (a). 
(2) Information on any further planning re-
quired to carry out the authority provided in sub-
section (a). 
(3) Other information of assistance to the com-
mittees with respect to such authority.
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SEC. 5. LIMITATION ON DISPOSAL OF LAKESIDE DIVISION, 
DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS MED-
ICAL FACILITIES, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. 
(a) LIMITATION.—The Secretary of Veterans Affairs 
may not make a final disposal under section 8162 of title 
38, United States Code, of the Lakeside Division facility 
of the Department of Veterans Affairs medical facilities 
in Chicago, Illinois, until the Secretary has entered into 
a contract for the construction project authorized by sec-
tion 3(a)(1). 
(b) DEFINITION.—For purposes of this section, the 
term ‘‘disposal’’, with respect to the Lakeside Division fa-
cility, includes entering into a long-term lease or sharing 
agreement under which a party other than the Secretary 
has operational control of the facility.
SEC. 6. PLANS FOR FACILITIES IN SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY 
AND FAR SOUTH TEXAS. 
(a) PLAN.—(1) The Secretary of Veterans Affairs 
shall develop—
(A) a plan to establish an inpatient facility to 
meet hospital care needs of veterans who reside in 
southern New Jersey; and 
(B) a plan for hospital care needs of veterans 
who reside in far south Texas. 
(2) In developing the plans under paragraph (1), the 
Secretary shall, at a minimum, consider options using the
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existing authorities of section 8111 and 8153 of title 38, 
United States Code—
(A) to establish a hospital staffed and managed 
by employees of the Department, either in private or 
public facilities, including Federal facilities; or 
(B) to enter into contracts with existing private 
facilities and private providers for that care. 
(b) REPORTS.—The Secretary shall submit to the 
Committees on Veterans’ Affairs of the Senate and House 
of Representatives a report on each plan under subsection 
(a) not later than January 31, 2004. 
(c) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
(1) The term ‘‘far south Texas’’ means the fol-
lowing counties of the State of Texas: Bee, Calhoun, 
Crockett, DeWitt, Dimmit, Goliad, Jackson, Vic-
toria, Webb, Aransas, Duval, Jim Wells, Kleberg, 
Nueces, Refugio, San Patricio, Brooks, Cameron, 
Hidalgo, Jim Hogg, Kenedy, Starr, Willacy, and Za-
pata. 
(2) The term ‘‘southern New Jersey’’ means 
the following counties of the State of New Jersey: 
Ocean, Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, Salem, 
Cumberland, Atlantic, and Cape May.
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SEC. 7. INCREASE IN MAJOR MEDICAL FACILITY CON-
STRUCTION COST THRESHOLD. 
Section 8104(a)(3)(A) of title 38, United States 
Code, is amended by striking ‘‘$4,000,000’’ and inserting 
‘‘$6,000,000’’. 
SEC. 8. STUDY AND REPORT ON FEASIBILITY OF COORDI-
NATION OF VETERANS HEALTH CARE SERV-
ICES IN SOUTH CAROLINA WITH NEW UNI-
VERSITY MEDICAL CENTER. 
(a) STUDY REQUIRED.—The Secretary of Veterans 
Affairs shall conduct a study to examine the feasibility of 
coordination by the Department of Veterans Affairs of its 
needs for inpatient hospital, medical care, and long-term 
care services for veterans with the pending construction 
of a new university medical center at the Medical Univer-
sity of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina. 
(b) MATTERS TO BE INCLUDED IN STUDY.—(1) As 
part of the study under subsection (a), the Secretary shall 
consider the following: 
(A) Integration with the Medical University of 
South Carolina of some or all of the services referred 
to in subsection (a) through contribution to the con-
struction of that university’s new medical facility or 
by becoming a tenant provider in that new facility. 
(B) Construction by the Department of Vet-
erans Affairs of a new independent inpatient or out-
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patient facility alongside or nearby the university’s 
new facility. 
(2) In carrying out paragraph (1), the Secretary shall 
consider the degree to which the Department of Veterans 
Affairs and the university medical center would be able 
to share expensive technologies and scarce specialty serv-
ices that would affect any such plans of the Secretary or 
the university. 
(3) In carrying out the study, the Secretary shall es-
pecially consider the applicability of the authorities under 
section 8153 of title 38, United States Code (relating to 
sharing of health care resources between the Department 
and community provider organizations) to govern future 
arrangements and relationship between the Department 
and the Medical University of South Carolina. 
(c) CONSULTATION
WITH
SECRETARY
OF
DE-
FENSE.—The Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall consult 
with the Secretary of Defense in carrying out the study 
under this section. Such consultation shall include consid-
eration of establishing a Department of Veterans Affairs-
Department of Defense joint health-care venture at the 
site referred to in subsection (a). 
(d) REPORT.—Not later than March 31, 2004, the 
Secretary shall submit to the Committees on Veterans’ Af-
fairs of the Senate and House of Representatives a report
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on the results of the study. The report shall include the 
Secretary’s recommendations with respect to coordination 
described in subsection (a), including recommendations 
with respect to each of the matters referred to in sub-
section (b). 
SEC. 9. NAME OF DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS 
HEALTH CARE FACILITY, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. 
The Department of Veterans Affairs health care facil-
ity located at 820 South Damen Avenue in Chicago, Illi-
nois, shall after the date of the enactment of this Act be 
known and designated as the ‘‘Jesse Brown Department 
of Veterans Affairs Medical Center’’. Any reference to 
such facility in any law, map, regulation, document, paper, 
or other record of the United States shall be considered 
to be a reference to the Jesse Brown Department of Vet-
erans Affairs Medical Center. 
SEC. 10. NAME OF DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS 
OUTPATIENT CLINIC, NEW LONDON, CON-
NECTICUT. 
The Department of Veterans Affairs outpatient clinic 
located in New London, Connecticut, shall after the date 
of the enactment of this Act be known and designated as 
the ‘‘John J. McGuirk Department of Veterans Affairs 
Outpatient Clinic’’. Any reference to such outpatient clinic 
in any law, regulation, map, document, record, or other