IIB 
113TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 3593 
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 
SEPTEMBER 17 (legislative day, SEPTEMBER 16), 2014 
Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs 
AN ACT 
To amend title 38, United States Code, to improve the 
construction of major medical facilities, 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. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘VA Construction As-
sistance Act of 2014’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS; SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 
(1) According to testimony by the Director of 
Physical Infrastructure of the General Account-
ability Office before the Committee on Veterans’ Af-
fairs of the House of Representatives in May 2013, 
schedule delays of major medical center construction 
projects of the Department of Veterans Affairs have 
averaged 35 months, with the delays ranging from 
14 months to 74 months. 
(2) The average cost increase attributed to such 
delays has been $336,000,000 per project. 
(3) Management of the major medical facility 
projects currently underway as of the date of the en-
actment of this Act in Denver, Colorado, Orlando, 
Florida, and New Orleans, Louisiana, should be sub-
ject to the oversight of a special project manager of 
the Army Corps of Engineers that is independent of 
the Department of Veterans Affairs because, accord-
ing to the Comptroller General of the United States, 
such projects have experienced continuous delays 
and a total cost increase of nearly $1,000,000,000. 
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(b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-
gress that— 
(1) the management of the major medical cen-
ter construction projects of the Department of Vet-
erans Affairs has been an abysmal failure; and 
(2) in order to minimize repeated delays and 
cost increases to such projects, the Secretary of Vet-
erans Affairs should fully implement all rec-
ommendations made by the Comptroller General of 
the United States in an April 2013 report to im-
prove construction procedures and practices of the 
Department. 
SEC. 3. IMPLEMENTATION OF MAJOR MEDICAL FACILITY 
CONSTRUCTION REFORMS. 
Section 8104 of title 38, United States Code, is 
amended by adding at the end the following new sub-
section: 
‘‘(i)(1) With respect to each project described in 
paragraph (2), the Secretary shall— 
‘‘(A) use the services of a medical equipment 
planner as part of the architectural and engineering 
firm for the project; 
‘‘(B) develop and use a project management 
plan to ensure clear and consistent communication 
among all parties; 
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‘‘(C) subject the project to construction peer ex-
cellence review; 
‘‘(D) develop— 
‘‘(i) a metrics program to enable the moni-
toring of change-order processing time; and 
‘‘(ii) goals for the change-order process 
consistent with the best practices of other de-
partments and agencies of the Federal Govern-
ment; and 
‘‘(E) to the extent practicable, use design-build 
processes to minimize multiple change orders. 
‘‘(2) A project described in this paragraph is a con-
struction or alteration project that is a major medical fa-
cility project.’’. 
SEC. 4. SPECIAL PROJECT MANAGER FOR CERTAIN MED-
ICAL CENTER CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS. 
(a) APPOINTMENT
OF
SPECIAL
PROJECT
MAN-
AGER.—Not later than 180 days after the date of the en-
actment of this Act, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs 
shall enter into an agreement with the Army Corps of En-
gineers to procure, on a reimbursable basis, the services 
of the Army Corps of Engineers with respect to appointing 
not less than one special project manager who has experi-
ence in managing construction projects that exceed 
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