Sponsors (2)
The bill encourages using design‑build to speed delivery of VA facilities and reduce overruns (benefiting veterans and potentially taxpayers) but increases reliance on a procurement method that can concentrate risk, reduce competition, and require stronger training and oversight to avoid higher costs or reduced transparency.
Veterans: VA construction projects can be completed faster using design‑build and accelerated procurement, which can speed delivery of modern medical centers and clinics and improve timely access to care.
Taxpayers and the public: Design‑build can reduce change orders, shorten time from design completion to occupancy, and lower schedule‑driven cost overruns, making capital projects more predictable and potentially reducing long‑term capital plan costs.
Federal project teams and contractors: The bill clarifies use of design‑build selection on large VA projects and explicitly includes design‑build in certification programs, which can reduce contractual friction, support qualified integrated teams, and improve project quality and oversight.
Taxpayers and project outcomes: Greater reliance on design‑build concentrates risk if VA staff lack adequate training or oversight, which could produce costly mistakes, lower quality projects, or failures to realize intended benefits.
Taxpayers: Expanding design‑build and contracting flexibility can reduce competitive bidding and oversight in some cases, increasing the risk that projects cost more rather than less if not well managed.
Small businesses and design firms: Increased use of design‑build selection methods can limit separate design/construction competition and reduce transparency, shrinking opportunities for small‑business participation in VA projects.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Requires the VA to use federal design‑build selection procedures for combined design‑and‑construction contracts and allows non‑VA project managers on large VA projects to use them.
Introduced May 21, 2025 by James E. Banks · Last progress May 21, 2025
Requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to use the federal design‑build selection procedures when entering contracts for the design and construction of VA buildings and facilities. It also permits non‑VA federal entities that manage large VA construction projects to use those same procedures and adds explicit statutory language recognizing "design‑build construction" in a VA certification program. The bill contains congressional findings and a non‑binding sense of Congress that design‑build, properly used, can shorten delivery time, reduce change orders, and improve warranty protections, and urges the VA to accelerate medical center construction by using design‑build where appropriate. It does not appropriate new funds or change tax law.