West Los Angeles Va Campus Improvement Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Mr. LIEU. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my bill H.R. 711, the West Los Angeles VA Campus Improvement Act of 2021. This legislation is critical to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) efforts, together with community partners, to address veteran homelessness in the Los Angeles area. In addition, it helps VA use already available funding streams for certain homeless veteran programs, thus reducing the need for taxpayer funds.

I represent the West LA VA, a 388-acre campus that serves thousands of veterans in Southern California and across the state, including offering temporary housing for homeless veterans, legal aide, training, and other services. The land was deeded to the federal government in 1888 and for decades thousands of veterans lived there. Unfortunately, following damage from a major earthquake in 1971, the VA began transitioning the land away from housing, costing Los Angeles County a crucial node in the battle to fight veteran homelessness. On top of that, fraud and general neglect of the campus before my tenure led to some of the campus falling into a state of disrepair. Finally, the VA settled in a suit alleging that many enhanced use leases on campus were not principally benefiting veterans, but instead serving other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, a year after I took office, Congress passed my West Los Angeles Leasing Act of 2016, a law intended to clean up the campus and which directly led to the end of most non-veteran related leases. The law has also helped spur the redevelopment of the property into a true home for veterans. The VA is now implementing a plan to build at least 1,200 new subsidized apartments, which is composed of 23 projects that range from renovating existing structures to developing and building new units.

This progress is encouraging. But there is a serious problem that was brought to my attention recently by veteran advocates. A drafting error in the 2016 legislation prevents the West LA VA from using funds from enhanced use leases (EULs) for the purposes of housing construction. The VA can only use such funds for ``renovation and maintenance'' of the campus which means money is lying stagnant that could be used to build housing but instead, because of a technical error, cannot go toward helping the VA fight homelessness. This legislation fixes that error.

Second, as a result of fraud on campus, the VA was supposed to get several million dollars in asset forfeiture funds. But instead, such funds go back to the general fund at the Treasury Department to be dispersed around the country, for any purpose at all. Veterans at the West LA VA are doubly harmed--first, by the initial fraud, and second, by the theft of funds that are supposed to make them whole. My legislation fixes this problem by making it clear funds from settlement money and asset forfeiture resulting from any past or future fraud on campus go to veterans at the facility that was harmed. It's just common sense.

Finally, my bill increases the life of enhanced use leases on the campus from 75 to 99 years. Increasing the length of the leases would reduce the financing costs for new housing, further helping the VA and its partners tackle homelessness.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleagues on the House Veterans Affairs Committee for their support, including Chairman Takano, who has been a tireless champion for our nation's veterans and specifically veterans in Los Angeles. I am grateful to Members on both sides of the aisle who passed this bill out of Committee on May 4th by voice vote, bringing us one step closer to ensuring the VA has the legal authorities it needs help our veterans. Let's not let technical errors stand in the way of housing our nation's heroes.

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