Sec. 801. Department of Veterans Affairs construction reforms
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Section 8103 is amended by adding at the end the following new subsections: To the maximum extent practicable, the Secretary shall use industry standards, standard designs, and best practices in carrying out the construction of medical facilities. The Secretary shall ensure that each employee of the Department with responsibilities, as determined by the Secretary, relating to the infrastructure construction or alteration of medical facilities, including such construction or alteration carried out pursuant to contracts or agreements, undergoes a program of ongoing professional training and development.
Such program shall be designed to ensure that employees maintain adequate expertise relating to industry standards and best practices for the acquisition of design and construction services. The Secretary may provide the program under this subsection directly or through a contract or agreement with a non-Federal entity or with a non-Department Federal entity. . Subsection
(c)of section 8104 is amended— by striking Not less than 30 days and inserting
(1)Not less than 30 days ; and by adding at the end the following new paragraph: The Secretary shall— enter into a contract or agreement with an appropriate non-department Federal entity with the ability to conduct forensic audits on medical facility projects for the conduct of an external forensic audit of the expenditures relating to any major medical facility or super construction project for which the total expenditures exceed the amount requested in the initial budget request for the project submitted to Congress under section 1105 of title 31 by more than 25 percent; and enter into a contract or agreement with an appropriate non-department Federal entity with the ability to conduct forensic audits on medical facility projects for the conduct of an external audit of the medical center construction project in Aurora, Colorado. . Subsection (d)(2)(B) of such section is amended— by redesignating clauses
(ii)and
(iii)as clauses
(iii)and (iv), respectively; by inserting after clause
(i)the following new clause (ii): If the major construction project that is the source of the bid savings is not complete— the amount already obligated by the Department or available in the project reserve for such project; the percentage of such project that has been completed; and the amount available to the Department to complete such project. ; and in clauses
(iii)and (iv), as redesignated by paragraph (1), strike amounts and inserting bid savings amounts both places it appears. At the end of subchapter I of chapter 81 add the following new section: Not later than 30 days after the last day of each fiscal quarter the Secretary shall submit to the Committees on Veterans’ Affairs of the Senate and House of Representatives a report on the super construction projects carried out by the appropriate non-Department Federal entity described in section 8103(e)(1) of this title during such quarter. Each such report shall include, for each such project— the budgetary and scheduling status of the project, as of the last day of the quarter covered by the report; and the actual cost and schedule variances of the project, as of such day, compared to the planned cost and schedules for the project. In this section, the term super construction project has the meaning given such term in section 8103(e)(3) of this title. . The table of sections at the beginning of such chapter is amended by adding at the end of the items relating to such subchapter the following new item: 8120. Quarterly report on super construction projects. .