Sec. 382. Budgetary treatment of Department of Veterans Affairs major medical facilities leases
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Congress finds the following: Title 31, United States Code, requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to record the full cost of its contractual obligation against funds available at the time a contract is executed. Office of Management and Budget Circular A–11 provides guidance to agencies in meeting the statutory requirements under title 31, United States Code, with respect to leases. For operating leases, Office of Management and Budget Circular A–11 requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to record up-front budget authority in an amount equal to total payments under the full term of the lease or [an] amount sufficient to cover first year lease payments plus cancellation costs .
Subject to the availability of appropriations provided in advance, in exercising the authority of the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to enter into leases provided in this Act, the Secretary shall record, pursuant to section 1501 of title 31, United States Code, as the full cost of the contractual obligation at the time a contract is executed either— an amount equal to total payments under the full term of the lease; or if the lease specifies payments to be made in the event the lease is terminated before its full term, an amount sufficient to cover the first year lease payments plus the specified cancellation costs.
Subsection
(b)of section 8104 is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph: In the case of a prospectus proposing funding for a major medical facility lease, a detailed analysis of how the lease is expected to comply with Office of Management and Budget Circular A–11 and section 1341 of title 31 (commonly referred to as the Anti-Deficiency Act ). Any such analysis shall include— an analysis of the classification of the lease as a lease-purchase , capital lease , or operating lease as those terms are defined in Office of Management and Budget Circular A–11; an analysis of the obligation of budgetary resources associated with the lease; and an analysis of the methodology used in determining the asset cost, fair market value, and cancellation costs of the lease. . Such section 8104 is further amended by adding at the end the following new subsection: Not less than 30 days before entering into a major medical facility lease, the Secretary shall submit to the Committees on Veterans’ Affairs of the Senate and the House of Representatives— notice of the Secretary’s intention to enter into the lease; a copy of the proposed lease; a description and analysis of any differences between the prospectus submitted pursuant to subsection
(b)and the proposed lease; and a scoring analysis demonstrating that the proposed lease fully complies with Office of Management and Budget Circular A–11. Each committee described in paragraph
(1)shall ensure that any information submitted to the committee under such paragraph is treated by the committee with the same level of confidentiality as is required by law of the Secretary and subject to the same statutory penalties for unauthorized disclosure or use as the Secretary. Not more than 30 days after entering into a major medical facility lease, the Secretary shall submit to each committee described in paragraph
(1)a report on any material differences between the lease that was entered into and the proposed lease described under such paragraph, including how the lease that was entered into changes the previously submitted scoring analysis described in subparagraph
(D)of such paragraph. . Nothing in this section, or the amendments made by this section, shall be construed to in any way relieve the Department of Veterans Affairs from any statutory or regulatory obligations or requirements existing prior to the enactment of this section and such amendments.