118THCONGRESS 1 STSESSION H. R. 4366 AN ACT Making appropriations for military construction, the Depart- ment of Veterans Affairs, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2024, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 2 •HR 4366 EH That the following sums are appropriated, out of any 1 money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for 2 military construction, the Department of Veterans Affairs, 3 and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 4 30, 2024, and for other purposes, namely: 5 TITLE I 6 DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE 7 M ILITARYCONSTRUCTION, ARMY 8 For acquisition, construction, installation, and equip-9 ment of temporary or permanent public works, military 10 installations, facilities, and real property for the Army as 11 currently authorized by law, including personnel in the 12 Army Corps of Engineers and other personal services nec-13 essary for the purposes of this appropriation, and for con-14 struction and operation of facilities in support of the func-15 tions of the Commander in Chief, $1,517,455,000 (in-16 creased by $103,000,000) (reduced by $103,000,000), to 17 remain available until September 30, 2028: Provided, 18 That, of this amount, not to exceed $345,775,000 shall 19 be available for study, planning, design, architect and en-20 gineer services, and host nation support, as authorized by 21 law, unless the Secretary of the Army determines that ad-22 ditional obligations are necessary for such purposes and 23 notifies the Committees on Appropriations of both Houses 24 of Congress of the determination and the reasons therefor: 25 3 •HR 4366 EH Provided further, That of the amount made available 1 under this heading, $162,900,000 shall be for the projects 2 and activities, and in the amounts, specified in the table 3 under the heading ‘‘Military Construction, Army’’ in the 4 report accompanying this Act, in addition to amounts oth-5 erwise available for such purposes. 6 M ILITARYCONSTRUCTION, NAVY ANDMARINECORPS 7 For acquisition, construction, installation, and equip-8 ment of temporary or permanent public works, naval in-9 stallations, facilities, and real property for the Navy and 10 Marine Corps as currently authorized by law, including 11 personnel in the Naval Facilities Engineering Command 12 and other personal services necessary for the purposes of 13 this appropriation, $4,477,961,000, to remain available 14 until September 30, 2028: Provided, That, of this amount, 15 not to exceed $602,625,000 shall be available for study, 16 planning, design, and architect and engineer services, as 17 authorized by law, unless the Secretary of the Navy deter-18 mines that additional obligations are necessary for such 19 purposes and notifies the Committees on Appropriations 20 of both Houses of Congress of the determination and the 21 reasons therefor: Provided further, That of the amount 22 made available under this heading, $52,683,000 shall be 23 for the projects and activities, and in the amounts, speci-24 fied in the table under the heading ‘‘Military Construction, 25 4 •HR 4366 EH Navy and Marine Corps’’ in the report accompanying this 1 Act, in addition to amounts otherwise available for such 2 purposes. 3 M ILITARYCONSTRUCTION, AIRFORCE 4 For acquisition, construction, installation, and equip-5 ment of temporary or permanent public works, military 6 installations, facilities, and real property for the Air Force 7 as currently authorized by law, $2,439,614,000, to remain 8 available until September 30, 2028: Provided, That, of this 9 amount, not to exceed $450,614,000 shall be available for 10 study, planning, design, and architect and engineer serv-11 ices, as authorized by law, unless the Secretary of the Air 12 Force determines that additional obligations are necessary 13 for such purposes and notifies the Committees on Appro-14 priations of both Houses of Congress of the determination 15 and the reasons therefor: Provided further, That of the 16 amount made available under this heading, $30,300,000 17 shall be for the projects and activities, and in the amounts, 18 specified in the table under the heading ‘‘Military Con-19 struction, Air Force’’ in the report accompanying this Act, 20 in addition to amounts otherwise available for such pur-21 poses. 22 5 •HR 4366 EH MILITARYCONSTRUCTION, DEFENSE-WIDE 1 (INCLUDING TRANSFER OF FUNDS) 2 For acquisition, construction, installation, and equip-3 ment of temporary or permanent public works, installa-4 tions, facilities, and real property for activities and agen-5 cies of the Department of Defense (other than the military 6 departments), as currently authorized by law, 7 $2,651,047,000, to remain available until September 30, 8 2028: Provided, That such amounts of this appropriation 9 as may be determined by the Secretary of Defense may 10 be transferred to such appropriations of the Department 11 of Defense available for military construction or family 12 housing as the Secretary may designate, to be merged with 13 and to be available for the same purposes, and for the 14 same time period, as the appropriation or fund to which 15 transferred: Provided further, That, of the amount, not to 16 exceed $304,045,000 shall be available for study, plan-17 ning, design, and architect and engineer services, as au-18 thorized by law, unless the Secretary of Defense deter-19 mines that additional obligations are necessary for such 20 purposes and notifies the Committees on Appropriations 21 of both Houses of Congress of the determination and the 22 reasons therefor. 23 6 •HR 4366 EH MILITARYCONSTRUCTION, ARMYNATIONALGUARD 1 For construction, acquisition, expansion, rehabilita-2 tion, and conversion of facilities for the training and ad-3 ministration of the Army National Guard, and contribu-4 tions therefor, as authorized by chapter 1803 of title 10, 5 United States Code, and Military Construction Authoriza-6 tion Acts, $369,261,000, to remain available until Sep-7 tember 30, 2028: Provided, That, of the amount, not to 8 exceed $42,361,000 shall be available for study, planning, 9 design, and architect and engineer services, as authorized 10 by law, unless the Director of the Army National Guard 11 determines that additional obligations are necessary for 12 such purposes and notifies the Committees on Appropria-13 tions of both Houses of Congress of the determination and 14 the reasons therefor: Provided further, That of the amount 15 made available under this heading, $19,075,000 shall be 16 for the projects and activities, and in the amounts, speci-17 fied in the table under the heading ‘‘Military Construction, 18 Army National Guard’’ in the report accompanying this 19 Act, in addition to amounts otherwise available for such 20 purposes. 21 M ILITARYCONSTRUCTION, AIRNATIONALGUARD 22 For construction, acquisition, expansion, rehabilita-23 tion, and conversion of facilities for the training and ad-24 ministration of the Air National Guard, and contributions 25 7 •HR 4366 EH therefor, as authorized by chapter 1803 of title 10, United 1 States Code, and Military Construction Authorization 2 Acts, $189,322,000, to remain available until September 3 30, 2028: Provided, That, of the amount, not to exceed 4 $36,200,000 shall be available for study, planning, design, 5 and architect and engineer services, as authorized by law, 6 unless the Director of the Air National Guard determines 7 that additional obligations are necessary for such purposes 8 and notifies the Committees on Appropriations of both 9 Houses of Congress of the determination and the reasons 10 therefor: Provided further, That of the amount made avail-11 able under this heading, $600,000 shall be for the projects 12 and activities, and in the amounts, specified in the table 13 under the heading ‘‘Military Construction, Air National 14 Guard’’ in the report accompanying this Act, in addition 15 to amounts otherwise available for such purposes. 16 M ILITARYCONSTRUCTION, ARMYRESERVE 17 For construction, acquisition, expansion, rehabilita-18 tion, and conversion of facilities for the training and ad-19 ministration of the Army Reserve as authorized by chapter 20 1803 of title 10, United States Code, and Military Con-21 struction Authorization Acts, $117,076,000, to remain 22 available until September 30, 2028: Provided, That, of the 23 amount, not to exceed $23,389,000 shall be available for 24 study, planning, design, and architect and engineer serv-25 8 •HR 4366 EH ices, as authorized by law, unless the Chief of the Army 1 Reserve determines that additional obligations are nec-2 essary for such purposes and notifies the Committees on 3 Appropriations of both Houses of Congress of the deter-4 mination and the reasons therefor. 5 M ILITARYCONSTRUCTION, NAVYRESERVE 6 For construction, acquisition, expansion, rehabilita-7 tion, and conversion of facilities for the training and ad-8 ministration of the reserve components of the Navy and 9 Marine Corps as authorized by chapter 1803 of title 10, 10 United States Code, and Military Construction Authoriza-11 tion Acts, $61,291,000, to remain available until Sep-12 tember 30, 2028: Provided, That, of the amount, not to 13 exceed $6,495,000 shall be available for study, planning, 14 design, and architect and engineer services, as authorized 15 by law, unless the Secretary of the Navy determines that 16 additional obligations are necessary for such purposes and 17 notifies the Committees on Appropriations of both Houses 18 of Congress of the determination and the reasons therefor. 19 M ILITARYCONSTRUCTION, AIRFORCERESERVE 20 For construction, acquisition, expansion, rehabilita-21 tion, and conversion of facilities for the training and ad-22 ministration of the Air Force Reserve as authorized by 23 chapter 1803 of title 10, United States Code, and Military 24 Construction Authorization Acts, $330,572,000, to remain 25 9 •HR 4366 EH available until September 30, 2028: Provided, That, of the 1 amount, not to exceed $12,146,000 shall be available for 2 study, planning, design, and architect and engineer serv-3 ices, as authorized by law, unless the Chief of the Air 4 Force Reserve determines that additional obligations are 5 necessary for such purposes and notifies the Committees 6 on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress of the de-7 termination and the reasons therefor: Provided further, 8 That of the amount made available under this heading, 9 $29,000,000 shall be for the projects and activities, and 10 in the amounts, specified in the table under the heading 11 ‘‘Military Construction, Air Force Reserve’’ in the report 12 accompanying this Act, in addition to amounts otherwise 13 available for such purposes. 14 N ORTHATLANTICTREATYORGANIZATION 15 S ECURITYINVESTMENTPROGRAM 16 For the United States share of the cost of the North 17 Atlantic Treaty Organization Security Investment Pro-18 gram for the acquisition and construction of military fa-19 cilities and installations (including international military 20 headquarters) and for related expenses for the collective 21 defense of the North Atlantic Treaty Area as authorized 22 by section 2806 of title 10, United States Code, and Mili-23 tary Construction Authorization Acts, $293,434,000, to 24 remain available until expended. 25 10 •HR 4366 EH DEPARTMENT OFDEFENSEBASECLOSUREACCOUNT 1 For deposit into the Department of Defense Base 2 Closure Account, established by section 2906(a) of the De-3 fense Base Closure and Realignment Act of 1990 (10 4 U.S.C. 2687 note), $539,174,000, to remain available 5 until expended. 6 F AMILYHOUSINGCONSTRUCTION, ARMY 7 For expenses of family housing for the Army for con-8 struction, including acquisition, replacement, addition, ex-9 pansion, extension, and alteration, as authorized by law, 10 $304,895,000, to remain available until September 30, 11 2028. 12 F AMILYHOUSINGOPERATION ANDMAINTENANCE, 13 A RMY 14 For expenses of family housing for the Army for op-15 eration and maintenance, including debt payment, leasing, 16 minor construction, principal and interest charges, and in-17 surance premiums, as authorized by law, $395,485,000. 18 F AMILYHOUSINGCONSTRUCTION, NAVY ANDMARINE 19 C ORPS 20 For expenses of family housing for the Navy and Ma-21 rine Corps for construction, including acquisition, replace-22 ment, addition, expansion, extension, and alteration, as 23 authorized by law, $277,142,000, to remain available until 24 September 30, 2028. 25 11 •HR 4366 EH FAMILYHOUSINGOPERATION ANDMAINTENANCE, 1 N AVY ANDMARINECORPS 2 For expenses of family housing for the Navy and Ma-3 rine Corps for operation and maintenance, including debt 4 payment, leasing, minor construction, principal and inter-5 est charges, and insurance premiums, as authorized by 6 law, $373,854,000. 7 F AMILYHOUSINGCONSTRUCTION, AIRFORCE 8 For expenses of family housing for the Air Force for 9 construction, including acquisition, replacement, addition, 10 expansion, extension, and alteration, as authorized by law, 11 $237,097,000, to remain available until September 30, 12 2028. 13 F AMILYHOUSINGOPERATION ANDMAINTENANCE, AIR 14 F ORCE 15 For expenses of family housing for the Air Force for 16 operation and maintenance, including debt payment, leas-17 ing, minor construction, principal and interest charges, 18 and insurance premiums, as authorized by law, 19 $324,386,000. 20 F AMILYHOUSINGOPERATION ANDMAINTENANCE, 21 D EFENSE-WIDE 22 For expenses of family housing for the activities and 23 agencies of the Department of Defense (other than the 24 military departments) for operation and maintenance, 25 12 •HR 4366 EH leasing, and minor construction, as authorized by law, 1 $50,785,000. 2 D EPARTMENT OFDEFENSE 3 F AMILYHOUSINGIMPROVEMENT FUND 4 For the Department of Defense Family Housing Im-5 provement Fund, $6,611,000, to remain available until ex-6 pended, for family housing initiatives undertaken pursu-7 ant to section 2883 of title 10, United States Code, pro-8 viding alternative means of acquiring and improving mili-9 tary family housing and supporting facilities. 10 D EPARTMENT OFDEFENSE 11 M ILITARYUNACCOMPANIEDHOUSINGIMPROVEMENT 12 F UND 13 For the Department of Defense Military Unaccom-14 panied Housing Improvement Fund, $496,000, to remain 15 available until expended, for unaccompanied housing ini-16 tiatives undertaken pursuant to section 2883 of title 10, 17 United States Code, providing alternative means of acquir-18 ing and improving military unaccompanied housing and 19 supporting facilities. 20 A DMINISTRATIVEPROVISIONS 21 S EC. 101. None of the funds made available in this 22 title shall be expended for payments under a cost-plus-a- 23 fixed-fee contract for construction, where cost estimates 24 exceed $25,000, to be performed within the United States, 25 13 •HR 4366 EH except Alaska, without the specific approval in writing of 1 the Secretary of Defense setting forth the reasons there-2 for. 3 S EC. 102. Funds made available in this title for con-4 struction shall be available for hire of passenger motor ve-5 hicles. 6 S EC. 103. Funds made available in this title for con-7 struction may be used for advances to the Federal High-8 way Administration, Department of Transportation, for 9 the construction of access roads as authorized by section 10 210 of title 23, United States Code, when projects author-11 ized therein are certified as important to the national de-12 fense by the Secretary of Defense. 13 S EC. 104. None of the funds made available in this 14 title may be used to begin construction of new bases in 15 the United States for which specific appropriations have 16 not been made. 17 S EC. 105. None of the funds made available in this 18 title shall be used for purchase of land or land easements 19 in excess of 100 percent of the value as determined by 20 the Army Corps of Engineers or the Naval Facilities Engi-21 neering Command, except: (1) where there is a determina-22 tion of value by a Federal court; (2) purchases negotiated 23 by the Attorney General or the designee of the Attorney 24 General; (3) where the estimated value is less than 25 14 •HR 4366 EH $25,000; or (4) as otherwise determined by the Secretary 1 of Defense to be in the public interest. 2 S EC. 106. None of the funds made available in this 3 title shall be used to: (1) acquire land; (2) provide for site 4 preparation; or (3) install utilities for any family housing, 5 except housing for which funds have been made available 6 in annual Acts making appropriations for military con-7 struction. 8 S EC. 107. None of the funds made available in this 9 title for minor construction may be used to transfer or 10 relocate any activity from one base or installation to an-11 other, without prior notification to the Committees on Ap-12 propriations of both Houses of Congress. 13 S EC. 108. None of the funds made available in this 14 title may be used for the procurement of steel for any con-15 struction project or activity for which American steel pro-16 ducers, fabricators, and manufacturers have been denied 17 the opportunity to compete for such steel procurement. 18 S EC. 109. None of the funds available to the Depart-19 ment of Defense for military construction or family hous-20 ing during the current fiscal year may be used to pay real 21 property taxes in any foreign nation. 22 S EC. 110. None of the funds made available in this 23 title may be used to initiate a new installation overseas 24 15 •HR 4366 EH without prior notification to the Committees on Appro-1 priations of both Houses of Congress. 2 S EC. 111. None of the funds made available in this 3 title may be obligated for architect and engineer contracts 4 estimated by the Government to exceed $500,000 for 5 projects to be accomplished in Japan, in any North Atlan-6 tic Treaty Organization member country, or in countries 7 bordering the Arabian Gulf, unless such contracts are 8 awarded to United States firms or United States firms 9 in joint venture with host nation firms. 10 S EC. 112. None of the funds made available in this 11 title for military construction in the United States terri-12 tories and possessions in the Pacific and on Kwajalein 13 Atoll, or in countries bordering the Arabian Gulf, may be 14 used to award any contract estimated by the Government 15 to exceed $1,000,000 to a foreign contractor: Provided, 16 That this section shall not be applicable to contract 17 awards for which the lowest responsive and responsible bid 18 of a United States contractor exceeds the lowest respon-19 sive and responsible bid of a foreign contractor by greater 20 than 20 percent: Provided further, That this section shall 21 not apply to contract awards for military construction on 22 Kwajalein Atoll for which the lowest responsive and re-23 sponsible bid is submitted by a Marshallese contractor. 24 16 •HR 4366 EH SEC. 113. The Secretary of Defense shall inform the 1 appropriate committees of both Houses of Congress, in-2 cluding the Committees on Appropriations, of plans and 3 scope of any proposed military exercise involving United 4 States personnel 30 days prior to its occurring, if amounts 5 expended for construction, either temporary or permanent, 6 are anticipated to exceed $100,000. 7 S EC. 114. Funds appropriated to the Department of 8 Defense for construction in prior years shall be available 9 for construction authorized for each such military depart-10 ment by the authorizations enacted into law during the 11 current session of Congress. 12 S EC. 115. For military construction or family housing 13 projects that are being completed with funds otherwise ex-14 pired or lapsed for obligation, expired or lapsed funds may 15 be used to pay the cost of associated supervision, inspec-16 tion, overhead, engineering and design on those projects 17 and on subsequent claims, if any. 18 S EC. 116. Notwithstanding any other provision of 19 law, any funds made available to a military department 20 or defense agency for the construction of military projects 21 may be obligated for a military construction project or 22 contract, or for any portion of such a project or contract, 23 at any time before the end of the fourth fiscal year after 24 the fiscal year for which funds for such project were made 25 17 •HR 4366 EH available, if the funds obligated for such project: (1) are 1 obligated from funds available for military construction 2 projects; and (2) do not exceed the amount appropriated 3 for such project, plus any amount by which the cost of 4 such project is increased pursuant to law. 5 (INCLUDING TRANSFER OF FUNDS) 6 S EC. 117. Subject to 30 days prior notification, or 7 14 days for a notification provided in an electronic me-8 dium pursuant to sections 480 and 2883 of title 10, 9 United States Code, to the Committees on Appropriations 10 of both Houses of Congress, such additional amounts as 11 may be determined by the Secretary of Defense may be 12 transferred to: (1) the Department of Defense Family 13 Housing Improvement Fund from amounts appropriated 14 for construction in ‘‘Family Housing’’ accounts, to be 15 merged with and to be available for the same purposes 16 and for the same period of time as amounts appropriated 17 directly to the Fund; or (2) the Department of Defense 18 Military Unaccompanied Housing Improvement Fund 19 from amounts appropriated for construction of military 20 unaccompanied housing in ‘‘Military Construction’’ ac-21 counts, to be merged with and to be available for the same 22 purposes and for the same period of time as amounts ap-23 propriated directly to the Fund: Provided, That appropria-24 tions made available to the Funds shall be available to 25 18 •HR 4366 EH cover the costs, as defined in section 502(5) of the Con-1 gressional Budget Act of 1974, of direct loans or loan 2 guarantees issued by the Department of Defense pursuant 3 to the provisions of subchapter IV of chapter 169 of title 4 10, United States Code, pertaining to alternative means 5 of acquiring and improving military family housing, mili-6 tary unaccompanied housing, and supporting facilities. 7 (INCLUDING TRANSFER OF FUNDS) 8 S EC. 118. In addition to any other transfer authority 9 available to the Department of Defense, amounts may be 10 transferred from the Department of Defense Base Closure 11 Account to the fund established by section 1013(d) of the 12 Demonstration Cities and Metropolitan Development Act 13 of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 3374) to pay for expenses associated 14 with the Homeowners Assistance Program incurred under 15 42 U.S.C. 3374(a)(1)(A). Any amounts transferred shall 16 be merged with and be available for the same purposes 17 and for the same time period as the fund to which trans-18 ferred. 19 S EC. 119. Notwithstanding any other provision of 20 law, funds made available in this title for operation and 21 maintenance of family housing shall be the exclusive 22 source of funds for repair and maintenance of all family 23 housing units, including general or flag officer quarters: 24 Provided, That not more than $15,000 per unit may be 25 19 •HR 4366 EH spent annually for the maintenance and repair of any gen-1 eral or flag officer quarters without 30 days prior notifica-2 tion, or 14 days for a notification provided in an electronic 3 medium pursuant to sections 480 and 2883 of title 10, 4 United States Code, to the Committees on Appropriations 5 of both Houses of Congress, except that an after-the-fact 6 notification shall be submitted if the limitation is exceeded 7 solely due to costs associated with environmental remedi-8 ation that could not be reasonably anticipated at the time 9 of the budget submission: Provided further, That the 10 Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) is to report an-11 nually to the Committees on Appropriations of both 12 Houses of Congress all operation and maintenance ex-13 penditures for each individual general or flag officer quar-14 ters for the prior fiscal year. 15 S EC. 120. Amounts contained in the Ford Island Im-16 provement Account established by subsection (h) of sec-17 tion 2814 of title 10, United States Code, are appro-18 priated and shall be available until expended for the pur-19 poses specified in subsection (i)(1) of such section or until 20 transferred pursuant to subsection (i)(3) of such section. 21 (INCLUDING TRANSFER OF FUNDS) 22 S EC. 121. During the 5-year period after appropria-23 tions available in this Act to the Department of Defense 24 for military construction and family housing operation and 25 20 •HR 4366 EH maintenance and construction have expired for obligation, 1 upon a determination that such appropriations will not be 2 necessary for the liquidation of obligations or for making 3 authorized adjustments to such appropriations for obliga-4 tions incurred during the period of availability of such ap-5 propriations, unobligated balances of such appropriations 6 may be transferred into the appropriation ‘‘Foreign Cur-7 rency Fluctuations, Construction, Defense’’, to be merged 8 with and to be available for the same time period and for 9 the same purposes as the appropriation to which trans-10 ferred. 11 S EC. 122. Amounts appropriated or otherwise made 12 available in an account funded under the headings in this 13 title may be transferred among projects and activities 14 within the account in accordance with the reprogramming 15 guidelines for military construction and family housing 16 construction contained in Department of Defense Finan-17 cial Management Regulation 7000.14–R, Volume 3, Chap-18 ter 7, of March 2011, as in effect on the date of enactment 19 of this Act. 20 S EC. 123. None of the funds made available in this 21 title may be obligated or expended for planning and design 22 and construction of projects at Arlington National Ceme-23 tery. 24 21 •HR 4366 EH SEC. 124. For an additional amount for the accounts 1 and in the amounts specified, to remain available until 2 September 30, 2028: 3 ‘‘Military Construction, Army’’, $47,700,000; 4 ‘‘Military Construction, Navy and Marine 5 Corps’’, $689,409,000; 6 ‘‘Military Construction, Air Force’’, 7 $148,300,000; 8 ‘‘Military Construction, Defense-Wide’’, 9 $280,100,000; 10 ‘‘Military Construction, Army National Guard’’, 11 $26,800,000; 12 ‘‘Military Construction, Air National Guard’’, 13 $126,742,000; 14 ‘‘Military Construction, Army Reserve’’, 15 $40,000,000; 16 ‘‘Military Construction, Air Force Reserve’’, 17 $8,500,000; and 18 ‘‘Family Housing Construction, Air Force’’, 19 $27,000,000: 20 Provided, That such funds may only be obligated to carry 21 out construction projects identified in the respective mili-22 tary department’s unfunded priority list for fiscal year 23 2024 submitted to Congress: Provided further, That such 24 projects are subject to authorization prior to obligation 25 22 •HR 4366 EH and expenditure of funds to carry out construction: Pro-1 vided further, That not later than 60 days after enactment 2 of this Act, the Secretary of the military department con-3 cerned, or their designee, shall submit to the Committees 4 on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress an expendi-5 ture plan for funds provided under this section. 6 S EC. 125. All amounts appropriated to the ‘‘Depart-7 ment of Defense—Military Construction, Army’’, ‘‘De-8 partment of Defense—Military Construction, Navy and 9 Marine Corps’’, ‘‘Department of Defense—Military Con-10 struction, Air Force’’, and ‘‘Department of Defense—Mili-11 tary Construction, Defense-Wide’’ accounts pursuant to 12 the authorization of appropriations in a National Defense 13 Authorization Act specified for fiscal year 2024 in the 14 funding table in section 4601 of that Act shall be imme-15 diately available and allotted to contract for the full scope 16 of authorized projects. 17 S EC. 126. Notwithstanding section 116 of this Act, 18 funds made available in this Act or any available unobli-19 gated balances from prior appropriations Acts may be obli-20 gated before October 1, 2025, for fiscal year 2017, 2018, 21 and 2019 military construction projects for which project 22 authorization has not lapsed or for which authorization 23 is extended for fiscal year 2024 by a National Defense 24 Authorization Act: Provided, That no amounts may be ob-25 23 •HR 4366 EH ligated pursuant to this section from amounts that were 1 designated by the Congress as an emergency requirement 2 pursuant to a concurrent resolution on the budget or the 3 Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 4 1985. 5 S EC. 127. For the purposes of this Act, the term 6 ‘‘congressional defense committees’’ means the Commit-7 tees on Armed Services of the House of Representatives 8 and the Senate, the Subcommittee on Military Construc-9 tion and Veterans Affairs of the Committee on Appropria-10 tions of the Senate, and the Subcommittee on Military 11 Construction and Veterans Affairs of the Committee on 12 Appropriations of the House of Representatives. 13 S EC. 128. For an additional amount for the accounts 14 and in the amounts specified for planning and design and 15 for construction improvements to Department of Defense 16 laboratory facilities, to remain available until September 17 30, 2028: 18 ‘‘Military Construction, Army’’, $30,000,000; 19 ‘‘Military Construction, Navy and Marine 20 Corps’’, $30,000,000; and 21 ‘‘Military Construction, Air Force’’, 22 $30,000,000: 23 Provided, That not later than 60 days after enactment of 24 this Act, the Secretary of the military department con-25 24 •HR 4366 EH cerned, or their designee, shall submit to the Committees 1 on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress an expendi-2 ture plan for funds provided under this section: Provided 3 further, That the Secretary of the military department 4 concerned may not obligate or expend any funds prior to 5 approval by the Committees on Appropriations of both 6 Houses of Congress of the expenditure plan required by 7 this section. 8 S EC. 129. For an additional amount for ‘‘Military 9 Construction, Air Force’’, $252,000,000, to remain avail-10 able until September 30, 2028, for expenses incurred as 11 a result of natural disasters: Provided, That not later than 12 60 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Sec-13 retary of the Air Force, or their designee, shall submit 14 to the Committees on Appropriations of both Houses of 15 Congress an expenditure plan for funds provided under 16 this section. 17 S EC. 130. For an additional amount for the accounts 18 and in the amounts specified for planning and design, for 19 child development centers, to remain available until Sep-20 tember 30, 2028: 21 ‘‘Military Construction, Army’’, $25,000,000 22 (increased by $25,000,000) (reduced by 23 $25,000,000); 24 25 •HR 4366 EH ‘‘Military Construction, Navy and Marine 1 Corps’’, $25,000,000 (increased by $25,000,000) 2 (reduced by $25,000,000); and 3 ‘‘Military Construction, Air Force’’, 4 $25,000,000 (increased by $25,000,000) (reduced by 5 $25,000,000): 6 Provided, That not later than 60 days after the date of 7 enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the military de-8 partment concerned, or their designee, shall submit to the 9 Committees on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress 10 an expenditure plan for funds provided under this section. 11 S EC. 131. For an additional amount for the accounts 12 and amounts specified for planning and design, for bar-13 racks, to remain available until September 30, 2028: 14 ‘‘Military Construction Army’’, $65,000,000; 15 ‘‘Military Construction, Navy and Marine 16 Corps’’, $65,000,000; and 17 ‘‘Military Construction, Air Force’’, 18 $65,000,000: 19 Provided, That not later than 60 days after the date of 20 enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the military de-21 partment concerned, or their designee, shall submit to the 22 Committees on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress 23 an expenditure plan for funds provided under this section. 24 26 •HR 4366 EH SEC. 132. For an additional amount for the accounts 1 and in the amounts specified for unspecified minor con-2 struction for demolition, to remain available until Sep-3 tember 30, 2028: 4 ‘‘Military Construction, Army’’, $15,000,000; 5 ‘‘Military Construction, Navy and Marine 6 Corps’’, $15,000,000; 7 ‘‘Military Construction, Air Force’’, 8 $15,000,000; 9 ‘‘Military Construction, Army National Guard’’, 10 $15,000,000; 11 ‘‘Military Construction, Air National Guard’’, 12 $15,000,000; 13 ‘‘Military Construction, Army Reserve’’, 14 $5,000,000; 15 ‘‘Military Construction, Navy Reserve’’, 16 $5,000,000; and 17 ‘‘Military Construction, Air Force Reserve’’, 18 $5,000,000: 19 Provided, That not later than 60 days after the date of 20 enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the military de-21 partment concerned, or their designee, shall submit to the 22 Committees on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress 23 an expenditure plan for funds provided under this section: 24 Provided further, That the Secretary of the military de-25 27 •HR 4366 EH partment concerned may not obligate or expend any funds 1 prior to approval by the Committees on Appropriations of 2 both Houses of Congress of the expenditure plan required 3 by this section. 4 S EC. 133. For an additional amount for the accounts 5 and in the amounts specified, to remain available until 6 September 30, 2028: 7 ‘‘Military Construction, Army’’, $122,210,000; 8 ‘‘Military Construction, Air Force’’, 9 $90,400,000; 10 ‘‘Military Construction, Army National Guard’’, 11 $134,881,000; and 12 ‘‘Military Construction, Army Reserve’’, 13 $23,000,000: 14 Provided, That funds may only be obligated to carry out 15 cost to complete projects identified in the respective mili-16 tary department’s unfunded priority list for fiscal year 17 2024 submitted to Congress: Provided further, That such 18 projects are subject to authorization prior to obligation 19 and expenditure funds to carry out construction: Provided 20 further, That not later than 60 days after enactment of 21 this Act, the Secretary of the military department con-22 cerned, or their designee, shall submit to the Committees 23 on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress an expendi-24 ture plan for funds under this section. 25 28 •HR 4366 EH SEC. 134. For an additional amount for ‘‘Military 1 Construction, Navy and Marine Corps’’, $50,000,000 to 2 remain available until September 30, 2028, for planning 3 and design for Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Pro-4 gram construction: Provided, That not later than 60 days 5 after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of 6 the Navy, or their designee, shall submit to the Commit-7 tees on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress an ex-8 penditure plan for funds provided under this section. 9 S EC. 135. None of the funds made available by this 10 Act may be used to carry out the closure or realignment 11 of the United States Naval Station, Guanta´namo Bay, 12 Cuba. 13 S EC. 136. (a) None of the funds made available by 14 this Act for the Department of the Air Force, or any other 15 Department and Agency, may be obligated or expended 16 for the construction or modification of facilities for tem-17 porary or permanent use by the United States Space Com-18 mand for headquarters operations unless, pursuant to sub-19 section (b), the preferred location for permanent head-20 quarters of the United States Space Command is selected 21 or until the required report is submitted. 22 (b) In the event a permanent location for the head-23 quarters is selected other than the preferred location as 24 identified by the Department of the Air Force in January 25 29 •HR 4366 EH 2021, the Secretary of the Air Force shall submit to the 1 congressional appropriations committees a report on the 2 rationale for the selection of a permanent location for the 3 headquarters of the United States Space Command. 4 (c) Subsection (a) shall not apply to any repair nec-5 essary to maintain facilities to protect personnel or prop-6 erty. 7 30 •HR 4366 EH TITLE II 1 DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS 2 V ETERANSBENEFITSADMINISTRATION 3 COMPENSATION AND PENSIONS 4 (INCLUDING TRANSFER OF FUNDS) 5 For the payment of compensation benefits to or on 6 behalf of veterans and a pilot program for disability ex-7 aminations as authorized by section 107 and chapters 11, 8 13, 18, 51, 53, 55, and 61 of title 38, United States Code; 9 pension benefits to or on behalf of veterans as authorized 10 by chapters 15, 51, 53, 55, and 61 of title 38, United 11 States Code; and burial benefits, the Reinstated Entitle-12 ment Program for Survivors, emergency and other offi-13 cers’ retirement pay, adjusted-service credits and certifi-14 cates, payment of premiums due on commercial life insur-15 ance policies guaranteed under the provisions of title IV 16 of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (50 U.S.C. App. 17 541 et seq.) and for other benefits as authorized by sec-18 tions 107, 1312, 1977, and 2106, and chapters 23, 51, 19 53, 55, and 61 of title 38, United States Code, 20 $4,655,879,000, which shall be in addition to funds pre-21 viously appropriated under this heading that become avail-22 able on October 1, 2023, to remain available until ex-23 pended; and, in addition, $181,390,281,000, which shall 24 become available on October 1, 2024, to remain available 25 31 •HR 4366 EH until expended: Provided, That not to exceed $22,109,000 1 of the amount made available for fiscal year 2025 under 2 this heading shall be reimbursed to ‘‘General Operating 3 Expenses, Veterans Benefits Administration’’, and ‘‘Infor-4 mation Technology Systems’’ for necessary expenses in 5 implementing the provisions of chapters 51, 53, and 55 6 of title 38, United States Code, the funding source for 7 which is specifically provided as the ‘‘Compensation and 8 Pensions’’ appropriation: Provided further, That such 9 sums as may be earned on an actual qualifying patient 10 basis, shall be reimbursed to ‘‘Medical Care Collections 11 Fund’’ to augment the funding of individual medical facili-12 ties for nursing home care provided to pensioners as au-13 thorized. 14 READJUSTMENT BENEFITS 15 For the payment of readjustment and rehabilitation 16 benefits to or on behalf of veterans as authorized by chap-17 ters 21, 30, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 39, 41, 51, 53, 55, and 18 61 of title 38, United States Code, $11,523,134,000, 19 which shall become available on October 1, 2024, to re-20 main available until expended: Provided, That expenses for 21 rehabilitation program services and assistance which the 22 Secretary is authorized to provide under subsection (a) of 23 section 3104 of title 38, United States Code, other than 24 32 •HR 4366 EH under paragraphs (1), (2), (5), and (11) of that sub-1 section, shall be charged to this account. 2 VETERANS INSURANCE AND INDEMNITIES 3 For military and naval insurance, national service life 4 insurance, servicemen’s indemnities, service-disabled vet-5 erans insurance, and veterans mortgage life insurance as 6 authorized by chapters 19 and 21 of title 38, United 7 States Code, $12,701,000, which shall be in addition to 8 funds previously appropriated under this heading that be-9 come available on October 1, 2023, to remain available 10 until expended; and in addition, $135,119,422, which shall 11 become available on October 1, 2024, to remain available 12 until expended. 13 VETERANS HOUSING BENEFIT PROGRAM FUND 14 For the cost of direct and guaranteed loans, such 15 sums as may be necessary to carry out the program, as 16 authorized by subchapters I through III of chapter 37 of 17 title 38, United States Code: Provided, That such costs, 18 including the cost of modifying such loans, shall be as de-19 fined in section 502 of the Congressional Budget Act of 20 1974: Provided further, That, during fiscal year 2024, 21 within the resources available, not to exceed $500,000 in 22 gross obligations for direct loans are authorized for spe-23 cially adapted housing loans. 24 33 •HR 4366 EH In addition, for administrative expenses to carry out 1 the direct and guaranteed loan programs, $316,742,419 2 (increased by $2,000,000) (reduced by $2,000,000) (re-3 duced by $1,000,000) (increased by $1,000,000). 4 VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION LOANS PROGRAM ACCOUNT 5 For the cost of direct loans, $78,337, as authorized 6 by chapter 31 of title 38, United States Code: Provided, 7 That such costs, including the cost of modifying such 8 loans, shall be as defined in section 502 of the Congres-9 sional Budget Act of 1974: Provided further, That funds 10 made available under this heading are available to sub-11 sidize gross obligations for the principal amount of direct 12 loans not to exceed $2,026,000. 13 In addition, for administrative expenses necessary to 14 carry out the direct loan program, $460,698, which may 15 be paid to the appropriation for ‘‘General Operating Ex-16 penses, Veterans Benefits Administration’’. 17 NATIVE AMERICAN VETERAN HOUSING LOAN PROGRAM 18 ACCOUNT 19 For administrative expenses to carry out the direct 20 loan program authorized by subchapter V of chapter 37 21 of title 38, United States Code, $2,718,546. 22 34 •HR 4366 EH GENERAL OPERATING EXPENSES , VETERANS BENEFITS 1 ADMINISTRATION 2 For necessary operating expenses of the Veterans 3 Benefits Administration, not otherwise provided for, in-4 cluding hire of passenger motor vehicles, reimbursement 5 of the General Services Administration for security guard 6 services, and reimbursement of the Department of De-7 fense for the cost of overseas employee mail, 8 $3,899,000,000 (reduced by $1,000,000) (increased by 9 $1,000,000) (reduced by $1,000,000) (increased by 10 $1,000,000) (reduced by $1,000,000) (increased by 11 $1,000,000) (increased by $10,000,000)(reduced by 12 $10,000,000): Provided, That expenses for services and 13 assistance authorized under paragraphs (1), (2), (5), and 14 (11) of section 3104(a) of title 38, United States Code, 15 that the Secretary of Veterans Affairs determines are nec-16 essary to enable entitled veterans: (1) to the maximum ex-17 tent feasible, to become employable and to obtain and 18 maintain suitable employment; or (2) to achieve maximum 19 independence in daily living, shall be charged to this ac-20 count: Provided further, That, of the funds made available 21 under this heading, not to exceed 10 percent shall remain 22 available until September 30, 2025. 23 35 •HR 4366 EH VETERANSHEALTHADMINISTRATION 1 MEDICAL SERVICES 2 For necessary expenses for furnishing, as authorized 3 by law, inpatient and outpatient care and treatment to 4 beneficiaries of the Department of Veterans Affairs and 5 veterans described in section 1705(a) of title 38, United 6 States Code, including care and treatment in facilities not 7 under the jurisdiction of the Department, and including 8 medical supplies and equipment, bioengineering services, 9 food services, and salaries and expenses of healthcare em-10 ployees hired under title 38, United States Code, assist-11 ance and support services for caregivers as authorized by 12 section 1720G of title 38, United States Code, loan repay-13 ments authorized by section 604 of the Caregivers and 14 Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2010 (Public 15 Law 111–163; 124 Stat. 1174; 38 U.S.C. 7681 note), 16 monthly assistance allowances authorized by section 17 322(d) of title 38, United States Code, grants authorized 18 by section 521A of title 38, United States Code, and ad-19 ministrative expenses necessary to carry out sections 20 322(d) and 521A of title 38, United States Code, and hos-21 pital care and medical services authorized by section 1787 22 of title 38, United States Code; $71,000,000,000 (reduced 23 by $10,000,000) (increased by $10,000,000) (reduced by 24 $2,000,000) (increased by $2,000,000) (increased by 25 36 •HR 4366 EH $10,000,000) (reduced by $10,000,000) (reduced by 1 $5,000,000) (increased by $5,000,000) (reduced by 2 $1,000,000) (increased by $1,000,000) (reduced by 3 $10,000,000) (increased by $10,000,000) (reduced by 4 $2,000,000) (increased by $2,000,000) (reduced by 5 $1,000,000) (increased by $1,000,000) (reduced by 6 $10,000,000) (increased by $10,000,000) (increased by 7 $1,000,000) (reduced by $1,000,000), plus reimburse-8 ments, shall become available on October 1, 2024, and 9 shall remain available until September 30, 2025: Provided, 10 That, of the amount made available on October 1, 2024, 11 under this heading, $2,000,000,000 shall remain available 12 until September 30, 2026: Provided further, That, not-13 withstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary of 14 Veterans Affairs shall establish a priority for the provision 15 of medical treatment for veterans who have service-con-16 nected disabilities, lower income, or have special needs: 17 Provided further, That, notwithstanding any other provi-18 sion of law, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall give 19 priority funding for the provision of basic medical benefits 20 to veterans in enrollment priority groups 1 through 6: Pro-21 vided further, That, notwithstanding any other provision 22 of law, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs may authorize 23 the dispensing of prescription drugs from Veterans Health 24 Administration facilities to enrolled veterans with privately 25 37 •HR 4366 EH written prescriptions based on requirements established by 1 the Secretary: Provided further, That the implementation 2 of the program described in the previous proviso shall 3 incur no additional cost to the Department of Veterans 4 Affairs: Provided further, That the Secretary of Veterans 5 Affairs shall ensure that sufficient amounts appropriated 6 under this heading for medical supplies and equipment are 7 available for the acquisition of prosthetics designed specifi-8 cally for female veterans: Provided further, That nothing 9 in section 2044(e)(1) of title 38, United States Code, may 10 be construed as limiting amounts that may be made avail-11 able under this heading for fiscal years 2024 and 2025 12 in this or prior Acts. 13 MEDICAL COMMUNITY CARE 14 For necessary expenses for furnishing health care to 15 individuals pursuant to chapter 17 of title 38, United 16 States Code, at non-Department facilities, 17 $20,382,000,000 (reduced by $1,000,000) (increased by 18 $1,000,000), plus reimbursements, shall become available 19 on October 1, 2024, and shall remain available until Sep-20 tember 30, 2025: Provided, That, of the amount made 21 available on October 1, 2024, under this heading, 22 $2,000,000,000 shall remain available until September 30, 23 2026. 24 38 •HR 4366 EH MEDICAL SUPPORT AND COMPLIANCE 1 For necessary expenses in the administration of the 2 medical, hospital, nursing home, domiciliary, construction, 3 supply, and research activities, as authorized by law; ad-4 ministrative expenses in support of capital policy activi-5 ties; and administrative and legal expenses of the Depart-6 ment for collecting and recovering amounts owed the De-7 partment as authorized under chapter 17 of title 38, 8 United States Code, and the Federal Medical Care Recov-9 ery Act (42 U.S.C. 2651 et seq.), $11,800,000,000 (re-10 duced by $1,000,000) (increased by $1,000,000), plus re-11 imbursements, shall become available on October 1, 2024, 12 and shall remain available until September 30, 2025: Pro-13 vided, That, of the amount made available on October 1, 14 2024, under this heading, $350,000,000 shall remain 15 available until September 30, 2026. 16 MEDICAL FACILITIES 17 For necessary expenses for the maintenance and op-18 eration of hospitals, nursing homes, domiciliary facilities, 19 and other necessary facilities of the Veterans Health Ad-20 ministration; for administrative expenses in support of 21 planning, design, project management, real property ac-22 quisition and disposition, construction, and renovation of 23 any facility under the jurisdiction or for the use of the 24 Department; for oversight, engineering, and architectural 25 39 •HR 4366 EH activities not charged to project costs; for repairing, alter-1 ing, improving, or providing facilities in the several hos-2 pitals and homes under the jurisdiction of the Depart-3 ment, not otherwise provided for, either by contract or by 4 the hire of temporary employees and purchase of mate-5 rials; for leases of facilities; and for laundry services; 6 $9,400,000,000, plus reimbursements, shall become avail-7 able on October 1, 2024, and shall remain available until 8 September 30, 2025: Provided, That, of the amount made 9 available on October 1, 2024, under this heading, 10 $500,000,000 shall remain available until September 30, 11 2026. 12 MEDICAL AND PROSTHETIC RESEARCH 13 For necessary expenses in carrying out programs of 14 medical and prosthetic research and development as au-15 thorized by chapter 73 of title 38, United States Code, 16 $938,000,000 (increased by $3,000,000) (reduced by 17 $20,000,000) (increased by $20,000,000), plus reimburse-18 ments, shall remain available until September 30, 2025: 19 Provided, That the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall en-20 sure that sufficient amounts appropriated under this 21 heading are available for prosthetic research specifically 22 for female veterans, and for toxic exposure research. 23 40 •HR 4366 EH NATIONALCEMETERYADMINISTRATION 1 For necessary expenses of the National Cemetery Ad-2 ministration for operations and maintenance, not other-3 wise provided for, including uniforms or allowances there-4 for; cemeterial expenses as authorized by law; purchase 5 of one passenger motor vehicle for use in cemeterial oper-6 ations; hire of passenger motor vehicles; and repair, alter-7 ation or improvement of facilities under the jurisdiction 8 of the National Cemetery Administration, $480,000,000 9 (increased by $2,000,000), of which not to exceed 10 per-10 cent shall remain available until September 30, 2025. 11 D EPARTMENTAL ADMINISTRATION 12 GENERAL ADMINISTRATION 13 (INCLUDING TRANSFER OF FUNDS) 14 For necessary operating expenses of the Department 15 of Veterans Affairs, not otherwise provided for, including 16 administrative expenses in support of Department-wide 17 capital planning, management and policy activities, uni-18 forms, or allowances therefor; not to exceed $25,000 for 19 official reception and representation expenses; hire of pas-20 senger motor vehicles; and reimbursement of the General 21 Services Administration for security guard services, 22 $475,000,000 (reduced by $5,500,000) (reduced by 23 $3,500,000) (reduced by $3,500,000) (reduced by 24 $3,500,000) (reduced by $3,500,000) (reduced by 25 41 •HR 4366 EH $1,000,000) (increased by $1,000,000) (reduced by 1 $5,000,000), of which not to exceed 10 percent shall re-2 main available until September 30, 2025: Provided, That 3 funds provided under this heading may be transferred to 4 ‘‘General Operating Expenses, Veterans Benefits Adminis-5 tration’’. 6 BOARD OF VETERANS APPEALS 7 For necessary operating expenses of the Board of 8 Veterans Appeals, $287,000,000 (increased by 9 $2,000,000) of which not to exceed 10 percent shall re-10 main available until September 30, 2025. 11 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SYSTEMS 12 (INCLUDING TRANSFER OF FUNDS) 13 For necessary expenses for information technology 14 systems and telecommunications support, including devel-15 opmental information systems and operational information 16 systems; for pay and associated costs; and for the capital 17 asset acquisition of information technology systems, in-18 cluding management and related contractual costs of said 19 acquisitions, including contractual costs associated with 20 operations authorized by section 3109 of title 5, United 21 States Code, $6,401,000,000 (reduced by $5,000,000), 22 plus reimbursements: Provided, That $1,606,977,000 (re-23 duced by $5,000,000) shall be for pay and associated 24 costs, of which not to exceed 3 percent shall remain avail-25 42 •HR 4366 EH able until September 30, 2025: Provided further, That 1 $4,668,373,000 shall be for operations and maintenance, 2 of which not to exceed 5 percent shall remain available 3 until September 30, 2025: Provided further, That 4 $125,650,000 shall be for information technology systems 5 development, and shall remain available until September 6 30, 2025: Provided further, That amounts made available 7 for salaries and expenses, operations and maintenance, 8 and information technology systems development may be 9 transferred among the three subaccounts after the Sec-10 retary of Veterans Affairs requests from the Committees 11 on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress the author-12 ity to make the transfer and an approval is issued: Pro-13 vided further, That amounts made available for the ‘‘Infor-14 mation Technology Systems’’ account for development 15 may be transferred among projects or to newly defined 16 projects: Provided further, That no project may be in-17 creased or decreased by more than $3,000,000 of cost 18 prior to submitting a request to the Committees on Appro-19 priations of both Houses of Congress to make the transfer 20 and an approval is issued, or absent a response, a period 21 of 30 days has elapsed: Provided further, That the funds 22 made available under this heading for information tech-23 nology systems development shall be for the projects, and 24 in the amounts, specified in the table entitled ‘‘Informa-25 43 •HR 4366 EH tion Technology Development Projects’’ under this head-1 ing in the report accompanying this Act. 2 VETERANS ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORD 3 For activities related to implementation, preparation, 4 development, interface, management, rollout, and mainte-5 nance of a Veterans Electronic Health Record system, in-6 cluding contractual costs associated with operations au-7 thorized by section 3109 of title 5, United States Code, 8 and salaries and expenses of employees hired under titles 9 5 and 38, United States Code, $1,863,000,000 (reduced 10 by $1,000,000) (increased by $1,000,000), to remain 11 available until September 30, 2026: Provided, That the 12 Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall submit to the Commit-13 tees on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress quar-14 terly reports detailing obligations, expenditures, and de-15 ployment implementation by facility, including any 16 changes from the deployment plan or schedule: Provided 17 further, That the funds provided in this account shall only 18 be available to the Office of the Deputy Secretary, to be 19 administered by that Office: Provided further, That 25 20 percent of the funds made available under this heading 21 shall not be available until July 1, 2024, and are contin-22 gent upon the Secretary of Veterans Affairs— 23 (1) providing the Committees on Appropriations 24 a report detailing the status of outstanding issues 25 44 •HR 4366 EH impacting the stability and usability of the new elec-1 tronic health record system, including those that 2 contributed to the October 13, 2022, deployment 3 delay, along with a timeline and measurable metrics 4 to resolve issues, no later than 60 days after enact-5 ment of this Act; 6 (2) certifying and detailing any changes to the 7 full deployment schedule, no later than 60 days prior 8 to July 1, 2024; and 9 (3) certifying in writing no later than 30 days 10 prior to July 1, 2024, the following— 11 (A) the status of issues included in the re-12 port referenced in paragraph (1), including 13 issues that have not been closed but have been 14 suitably resolved or mitigated in a manner that 15 will enhance provider productivity and minimize 16 the potential for patient harm; and 17 (B) whether the system is stable, ready, 18 and optimized for further deployment at VA 19 sites. 20 OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL 21 For necessary expenses of the Office of Inspector 22 General, to include information technology, in carrying out 23 the provisions of the Inspector General Act of 1978 (5 24 45 •HR 4366 EH U.S.C. App.), $296,000,000, of which not to exceed 10 1 percent shall remain available until September 30, 2025. 2 CONSTRUCTION, MAJOR PROJECTS 3 For constructing, altering, extending, and improving 4 any of the facilities, including parking projects, under the 5 jurisdiction or for the use of the Department of Veterans 6 Affairs, or for any of the purposes set forth in sections 7 316, 2404, 2406 and chapter 81 of title 38, United States 8 Code, not otherwise provided for, including planning, ar-9 chitectural and engineering services, construction manage-10 ment services, maintenance or guarantee period services 11 costs associated with equipment guarantees provided 12 under the project, services of claims analysts, offsite utility 13 and storm drainage system construction costs, and site ac-14 quisition, where the estimated cost of a project is more 15 than the amount set forth in section 8104(a)(3)(A) of title 16 38, United States Code, or where funds for a project were 17 made available in a previous major project appropriation, 18 $881,000,000, of which $373,096,000 shall remain avail-19 able until September 30, 2028, and of which 20 $507,904,000 shall remain available until expended, of 21 which $110,000,000 shall be available for seismic improve-22 ment projects and seismic program management activities, 23 including for projects that would otherwise be funded by 24 the Construction, Minor Projects, Medical Facilities or 25 46 •HR 4366 EH National Cemetery Administration accounts: Provided, 1 That except for advance planning activities, including 2 needs assessments which may or may not lead to capital 3 investments, and other capital asset management related 4 activities, including portfolio development and manage-5 ment activities, and planning, cost estimating, and design 6 for major medical facility projects and major medical facil-7 ity leases and investment strategy studies funded through 8 the advance planning fund and the planning and design 9 activities funded through the design fund, staffing ex-10 penses, and funds provided for the purchase, security, and 11 maintenance of land for the National Cemetery Adminis-12 tration through the land acquisition line item, none of the 13 funds made available under this heading shall be used for 14 any project that has not been notified to Congress through 15 the budgetary process or that has not been approved by 16 the Congress through statute, joint resolution, or in the 17 explanatory statement accompanying such Act and pre-18 sented to the President at the time of enrollment: Provided 19 further, That such sums as may be necessary shall be 20 available to reimburse the ‘‘General Administration’’ ac-21 count for payment of salaries and expenses of all Office 22 of Construction and Facilities Management employees to 23 support the full range of capital infrastructure services 24 provided, including minor construction and leasing serv-25 47 •HR 4366 EH ices: Provided further, That funds made available under 1 this heading for fiscal year 2024, for each approved 2 project shall be obligated: (1) by the awarding of a con-3 struction documents contract by September 30, 2024; and 4 (2) by the awarding of a construction contract by Sep-5 tember 30, 2025: Provided further, That the Secretary of 6 Veterans Affairs shall promptly submit to the Committees 7 on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress a written 8 report on any approved major construction project for 9 which obligations are not incurred within the time limita-10 tions established above: Provided further, That notwith-11 standing the requirements of section 8104(a) of title 38, 12 United States Code, amounts made available under this 13 heading for seismic improvement projects and seismic pro-14 gram management activities shall be available for the com-15 pletion of both new and existing seismic projects of the 16 Department. 17 CONSTRUCTION, MINOR PROJECTS 18 For constructing, altering, extending, and improving 19 any of the facilities, including parking projects, under the 20 jurisdiction or for the use of the Department of Veterans 21 Affairs, including planning and assessments of needs 22 which may lead to capital investments, architectural and 23 engineering services, maintenance or guarantee period 24 services costs associated with equipment guarantees pro-25 48 •HR 4366 EH vided under the project, services of claims analysts, offsite 1 utility and storm drainage system construction costs, and 2 site acquisition, or for any of the purposes set forth in 3 sections 316, 2404, 2406 and chapter 81 of title 38, 4 United States Code, not otherwise provided for, where the 5 estimated cost of a project is equal to or less than the 6 amount set forth in section 8104(a)(3)(A) of title 38, 7 United States Code, $680,000,000, of which 8 $612,000,000 shall remain available until September 30, 9 2028, and of which $68,000,000 shall remain available 10 until expended, along with unobligated balances of pre-11 vious ‘‘Construction, Minor Projects’’ appropriations 12 which are hereby made available for any project where the 13 estimated cost is equal to or less than the amount set forth 14 in such section: Provided, That funds made available 15 under this heading shall be for: (1) repairs to any of the 16 nonmedical facilities under the jurisdiction or for the use 17 of the Department which are necessary because of loss or 18 damage caused by any natural disaster or catastrophe; 19 and (2) temporary measures necessary to prevent or to 20 minimize further loss by such causes. 21 GRANTS FOR CONSTRUCTION OF STATE EXTENDED CARE 22 FACILITIES 23 For grants to assist States to acquire or construct 24 State nursing home and domiciliary facilities and to re-25 49 •HR 4366 EH model, modify, or alter existing hospital, nursing home, 1 and domiciliary facilities in State homes, for furnishing 2 care to veterans as authorized by sections 8131 through 3 8137 of title 38, United States Code, $164,000,000 (in-4 creased by $2,000,000) (increased by $5,000,000) (in-5 creased by $5,000,000), to remain available until ex-6 pended. 7 GRANTS FOR CONSTRUCTION OF VETERANS CEMETERIES 8 For grants to assist States and tribal organizations 9 in establishing, expanding, or improving veterans ceme-10 teries as authorized by section 2408 of title 38, United 11 States Code, $60,000,000 (increased by $2,000,000), to 12 remain available until expended. 13 A DMINISTRATIVEPROVISIONS 14 (INCLUDING TRANSFER OF FUNDS) 15 S EC. 201. Any appropriation for fiscal year 2024 for 16 ‘‘Compensation and Pensions’’, ‘‘Readjustment Benefits’’, 17 and ‘‘Veterans Insurance and Indemnities’’ may be trans-18 ferred as necessary to any other of the mentioned appro-19 priations: Provided, That, before a transfer may take 20 place, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall request from 21 the Committees on Appropriations of both Houses of Con-22 gress the authority to make the transfer and such Com-23 mittees issue an approval, or absent a response, a period 24 of 30 days has elapsed. 25 50 •HR 4366 EH (INCLUDING TRANSFER OF FUNDS) 1 S EC. 202. Amounts made available for the Depart-2 ment of Veterans Affairs for fiscal year 2024, in this or 3 any other Act, under the ‘‘Medical Services’’, ‘‘Medical 4 Community Care’’, ‘‘Medical Support and Compliance’’, 5 and ‘‘Medical Facilities’’ accounts may be transferred 6 among the accounts: Provided, That any transfers among 7 the ‘‘Medical Services’’, ‘‘Medical Community Care’’, and 8 ‘‘Medical Support and Compliance’’ accounts of 1 percent 9 or less of the total amount appropriated to the account 10 in this or any other Act may take place subject to notifica-11 tion from the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to the Com-12 mittees on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress of 13 the amount and purpose of the transfer: Provided further, 14 That any transfers among the ‘‘Medical Services’’, ‘‘Med-15 ical Community Care’’, and ‘‘Medical Support and Compli-16 ance’’ accounts in excess of 1 percent, or exceeding the 17 cumulative 1 percent for the fiscal year, may take place 18 only after the Secretary requests from the Committees on 19 Appropriations of both Houses of Congress the authority 20 to make the transfer and an approval is issued: Provided 21 further, That any transfers to or from the ‘‘Medical Facili-22 ties’’ account may take place only after the Secretary re-23 quests from the Committees on Appropriations of both 24 51 •HR 4366 EH Houses of Congress the authority to make the transfer 1 and an approval is issued. 2 S EC. 203. Appropriations available in this title for 3 salaries and expenses shall be available for services au-4 thorized by section 3109 of title 5, United States Code; 5 hire of passenger motor vehicles; lease of a facility or land 6 or both; and uniforms or allowances therefore, as author-7 ized by sections 5901 through 5902 of title 5, United 8 States Code. 9 S EC. 204. No appropriations in this title (except the 10 appropriations for ‘‘Construction, Major Projects’’, and 11 ‘‘Construction, Minor Projects’’) shall be available for the 12 purchase of any site for or toward the construction of any 13 new hospital or home. 14 S EC. 205. No appropriations in this title shall be 15 available for hospitalization or examination of any persons 16 (except beneficiaries entitled to such hospitalization or ex-17 amination under the laws providing such benefits to vet-18 erans, and persons receiving such treatment under sec-19 tions 7901 through 7904 of title 5, United States Code, 20 or the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency 21 Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5121 et seq.)), unless reim-22 bursement of the cost of such hospitalization or examina-23 tion is made to the ‘‘Medical Services’’ account at such 24 rates as may be fixed by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. 25 52 •HR 4366 EH SEC. 206. Appropriations available in this title for 1 ‘‘Compensation and Pensions’’, ‘‘Readjustment Benefits’’, 2 and ‘‘Veterans Insurance and Indemnities’’ shall be avail-3 able for payment of prior year accrued obligations re-4 quired to be recorded by law against the corresponding 5 prior year accounts within the last quarter of fiscal year 6 2023. 7 S EC. 207. Appropriations available in this title shall 8 be available to pay prior year obligations of corresponding 9 prior year appropriations accounts resulting from sections 10 3328(a), 3334, and 3712(a) of title 31, United States 11 Code, except that if such obligations are from trust fund 12 accounts they shall be payable only from ‘‘Compensation 13 and Pensions’’. 14 (INCLUDING TRANSFER OF FUNDS) 15 S EC. 208. Notwithstanding any other provision of 16 law, during fiscal year 2024, the Secretary of Veterans 17 Affairs shall, from the National Service Life Insurance 18 Fund under section 1920 of title 38, United States Code, 19 the Veterans’ Special Life Insurance Fund under section 20 1923 of title 38, United States Code, and the United 21 States Government Life Insurance Fund under section 22 1955 of title 38, United States Code, reimburse the ‘‘Gen-23 eral Operating Expenses, Veterans Benefits Administra-24 tion’’ and ‘‘Information Technology Systems’’ accounts for 25 53 •HR 4366 EH the cost of administration of the insurance programs fi-1 nanced through those accounts: Provided, That reimburse-2 ment shall be made only from the surplus earnings accu-3 mulated in such an insurance program during fiscal year 4 2024 that are available for dividends in that program after 5 claims have been paid and actuarially determined reserves 6 have been set aside: Provided further, That if the cost of 7 administration of such an insurance program exceeds the 8 amount of surplus earnings accumulated in that program, 9 reimbursement shall be made only to the extent of such 10 surplus earnings: Provided further, That the Secretary 11 shall determine the cost of administration for fiscal year 12 2024 which is properly allocable to the provision of each 13 such insurance program and to the provision of any total 14 disability income insurance included in that insurance pro-15 gram. 16 S EC. 209. Amounts deducted from enhanced-use 17 lease proceeds to reimburse an account for expenses in-18 curred by that account during a prior fiscal year for pro-19 viding enhanced-use lease services shall be available until 20 expended. 21 (INCLUDING TRANSFER OF FUNDS) 22 S EC. 210. Funds available in this title or funds for 23 salaries and other administrative expenses shall also be 24 available to reimburse the Office of Resolution Manage-25 54 •HR 4366 EH ment, Diversity and Inclusion, the Office of Employment 1 Discrimination Complaint Adjudication, and the Alter-2 native Dispute Resolution function within the Office of 3 Human Resources and Administration for all services pro-4 vided at rates which will recover actual costs but not to 5 exceed $86,481,000 for the Office of Resolution Manage-6 ment, Diversity and Inclusion, $6,960,000 for the Office 7 of Employment Discrimination Complaint Adjudication, 8 and $7,772,000 for the Alternative Dispute Resolution 9 function within the Office of Human Resources and Ad-10 ministration: Provided, That payments may be made in 11 advance for services to be furnished based on estimated 12 costs: Provided further, That amounts received shall be 13 credited to the ‘‘General Administration’’ and ‘‘Informa-14 tion Technology Systems’’ accounts for use by the office 15 that provided the service. 16 S EC. 211. No funds of the Department of Veterans 17 Affairs shall be available for hospital care, nursing home 18 care, or medical services provided to any person under 19 chapter 17 of title 38, United States Code, for a non-serv-20 ice-connected disability described in section 1729(a)(2) of 21 such title, unless that person has disclosed to the Sec-22 retary of Veterans Affairs, in such form as the Secretary 23 may require, current, accurate third-party reimbursement 24 information for purposes of section 1729 of such title: Pro-25 55 •HR 4366 EH vided, That the Secretary may recover, in the same man-1 ner as any other debt due the United States, the reason-2 able charges for such care or services from any person who 3 does not make such disclosure as required: Provided fur-4 ther, That any amounts so recovered for care or services 5 provided in a prior fiscal year may be obligated by the 6 Secretary during the fiscal year in which amounts are re-7 ceived. 8 (INCLUDING TRANSFER OF FUNDS) 9 S EC. 212. Notwithstanding any other provision of 10 law, proceeds or revenues derived from enhanced-use leas-11 ing activities (including disposal) may be deposited into 12 the ‘‘Construction, Major Projects’’ and ‘‘Construction, 13 Minor Projects’’ accounts and be used for construction 14 (including site acquisition and disposition), alterations, 15 and improvements of any medical facility under the juris-16 diction or for the use of the Department of Veterans Af-17 fairs. Such sums as realized are in addition to the amount 18 provided for in ‘‘Construction, Major Projects’’ and ‘‘Con-19 struction, Minor Projects’’. 20 S EC. 213. Amounts made available under ‘‘Medical 21 Services’’ are available— 22 (1) for furnishing recreational facilities, sup-23 plies, and equipment; and 24 56 •HR 4366 EH (2) for funeral expenses, burial expenses, and 1 other expenses incidental to funerals and burials for 2 beneficiaries receiving care in the Department. 3 (INCLUDING TRANSFER OF FUNDS) 4 S EC. 214. Such sums as may be deposited into the 5 Medical Care Collections Fund pursuant to section 1729A 6 of title 38, United States Code, may be transferred to the 7 ‘‘Medical Services’’ and ‘‘Medical Community Care’’ ac-8 counts to remain available until expended for the purposes 9 of these accounts. 10 S EC. 215. The Secretary of Veterans Affairs may 11 enter into agreements with Federally Qualified Health 12 Centers in the State of Alaska and Indian Tribes and 13 Tribal organizations which are party to the Alaska Native 14 Health Compact with the Indian Health Service, to pro-15 vide healthcare, including behavioral health and dental 16 care, to veterans in rural Alaska. The Secretary shall re-17 quire participating veterans and facilities to comply with 18 all appropriate rules and regulations, as established by the 19 Secretary. The term ‘‘rural Alaska’’ shall mean those 20 lands which are not within the boundaries of the munici-21 pality of Anchorage or the Fairbanks North Star Borough. 22 (INCLUDING TRANSFER OF FUNDS) 23 S EC. 216. Such sums as may be deposited into the 24 Department of Veterans Affairs Capital Asset Fund pur-25 57 •HR 4366 EH suant to section 8118 of title 38, United States Code, may 1 be transferred to the ‘‘Construction, Major Projects’’ and 2 ‘‘Construction, Minor Projects’’ accounts, to remain avail-3 able until expended for the purposes of these accounts. 4 S EC. 217. Not later than 30 days after the end of 5 each fiscal quarter, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall 6 submit to the Committees on Appropriations of both 7 Houses of Congress a report on the financial status of the 8 Department of Veterans Affairs for the preceding quarter: 9 Provided, That, at a minimum, the report shall include 10 the direction contained in the paragraph entitled ‘‘Quar-11 terly reporting’’, under the heading ‘‘General Administra-12 tion’’ in the joint explanatory statement accompanying 13 Public Law 114–223. 14 (INCLUDING TRANSFER OF FUNDS) 15 S EC. 218. Amounts made available under the ‘‘Med-16 ical Services’’, ‘‘Medical Community Care’’, ‘‘Medical Sup-17 port and Compliance’’, ‘‘Medical Facilities’’, ‘‘General Op-18 erating Expenses, Veterans Benefits Administration’’, 19 ‘‘Board of Veterans Appeals’’, ‘‘General Administration’’, 20 and ‘‘National Cemetery Administration’’ accounts for fis-21 cal year 2024 may be transferred to or from the ‘‘Informa-22 tion Technology Systems’’ account: Provided, That such 23 transfers may not result in a more than 10 percent aggre-24 gate increase in the total amount made available by this 25 58 •HR 4366 EH Act for the ‘‘Information Technology Systems’’ account: 1 Provided further, That, before a transfer may take place, 2 the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall request from the 3 Committees on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress 4 the authority to make the transfer and an approval is 5 issued. 6 (INCLUDING TRANSFER OF FUNDS) 7 S EC. 219. Of the amounts appropriated to the De-8 partment of Veterans Affairs for fiscal year 2024 for 9 ‘‘Medical Services’’, ‘‘Medical Community Care’’, ‘‘Medical 10 Support and Compliance’’, ‘‘Medical Facilities’’, ‘‘Con-11 struction, Minor Projects’’, and ‘‘Information Technology 12 Systems’’, up to $430,532,000, plus reimbursements, may 13 be transferred to the Joint Department of Defense—De-14 partment of Veterans Affairs Medical Facility Demonstra-15 tion Fund, established by section 1704 of the National De-16 fense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 (Public Law 17 111–84; 123 Stat. 2571) and may be used for operation 18 of the facilities designated as combined Federal medical 19 facilities as described by section 706 of the Duncan Hun-20 ter National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 21 2009 (Public Law 110–417; 122 Stat. 4500): Provided, 22 That additional funds may be transferred from accounts 23 designated in this section to the Joint Department of De-24 fense—Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Facility 25 59 •HR 4366 EH Demonstration Fund upon written notification by the Sec-1 retary of Veterans Affairs to the Committees on Appro-2 priations of both Houses of Congress: Provided further, 3 That section 220 of title II of division J of Public Law 4 117–328 is repealed. 5 (INCLUDING TRANSFER OF FUNDS) 6 S EC. 220. Of the amounts appropriated to the De-7 partment of Veterans Affairs which become available on 8 October 1, 2024, for ‘‘Medical Services’’, ‘‘Medical Com-9 munity Care’’, ‘‘Medical Support and Compliance’’, and 10 ‘‘Medical Facilities’’, up to $456,547,000, plus reimburse-11 ments, may be transferred to the Joint Department of De-12 fense—Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Facility 13 Demonstration Fund, established by section 1704 of the 14 National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 15 (Public Law 111–84; 123 Stat. 2571) and may be used 16 for operation of the facilities designated as combined Fed-17 eral medical facilities as described by section 706 of the 18 Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act for 19 Fiscal Year 2009 (Public Law 110–417; 122 Stat. 4500): 20 Provided, That additional funds may be transferred from 21 accounts designated in this section to the Joint Depart-22 ment of Defense—Department of Veterans Affairs Med-23 ical Facility Demonstration Fund upon written notifica-24 60 •HR 4366 EH tion by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to the Commit-1 tees on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress. 2 (INCLUDING TRANSFER OF FUNDS) 3 S EC. 221. Such sums as may be deposited into the 4 Medical Care Collections Fund pursuant to section 1729A 5 of title 38, United States Code, for healthcare provided 6 at facilities designated as combined Federal medical facili-7 ties as described by section 706 of the Duncan Hunter 8 National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009 9 (Public Law 110–417; 122 Stat. 4500) shall also be avail-10 able: (1) for transfer to the Joint Department of De-11 fense—Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Facility 12 Demonstration Fund, established by section 1704 of the 13 National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 14 (Public Law 111–84; 123 Stat. 2571); and (2) for oper-15 ations of the facilities designated as combined Federal 16 medical facilities as described by section 706 of the Dun-17 can Hunter National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 18 Year 2009 (Public Law 110–417; 122 Stat. 4500): Pro-19 vided, That, notwithstanding section 1704(b)(3) of the 20 National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 21 (Public Law 111–84; 123 Stat. 2573), amounts trans-22 ferred to the Joint Department of Defense—Department 23 of Veterans Affairs Medical Facility Demonstration Fund 24 shall remain available until expended. 25 61 •HR 4366 EH (INCLUDING TRANSFER OF FUNDS) 1 S EC. 222. Of the amounts available in this title for 2 ‘‘Medical Services’’, ‘‘Medical Community Care’’, ‘‘Medical 3 Support and Compliance’’, and ‘‘Medical Facilities’’, a 4 minimum of $15,000,000 shall be transferred to the 5 DOD–VA Health Care Sharing Incentive Fund, as au-6 thorized by section 8111(d) of title 38, United States 7 Code, to remain available until expended, for any purpose 8 authorized by section 8111 of title 38, United States Code. 9 S EC. 223. The Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall no-10 tify the Committees on Appropriations of both Houses of 11 Congress of all bid savings in a major construction project 12 that total at least $5,000,000, or 5 percent of the pro-13 grammed amount of the project, whichever is less: Pro-14 vided, That such notification shall occur within 14 days 15 of a contract identifying the programmed amount: Pro-16 vided further, That the Secretary shall notify the Commit-17 tees on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress 14 18 days prior to the obligation of such bid savings and shall 19 describe the anticipated use of such savings. 20 S EC. 224. None of the funds made available for 21 ‘‘Construction, Major Projects’’ may be used for a project 22 in excess of the scope specified for that project in the origi-23 nal justification data provided to the Congress as part of 24 the request for appropriations unless the Secretary of Vet-25 62 •HR 4366 EH erans Affairs receives approval from the Committees on 1 Appropriations of both Houses of Congress. 2 S EC. 225. Not later than 30 days after the end of 3 each fiscal quarter, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall 4 submit to the Committees on Appropriations of both 5 Houses of Congress a quarterly report containing perform-6 ance measures and data from each Veterans Benefits Ad-7 ministration Regional Office: Provided, That, at a min-8 imum, the report shall include the direction contained in 9 the section entitled ‘‘Disability claims backlog’’, under the 10 heading ‘‘General Operating Expenses, Veterans Benefits 11 Administration’’ in the joint explanatory statement accom-12 panying Public Law 114–223: Provided further, That the 13 report shall also include information on the number of ap-14 peals pending at the Veterans Benefits Administration as 15 well as the Board of Veterans Appeals on a quarterly 16 basis. 17 S EC. 226. The Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall 18 provide written notification to the Committees on Appro-19 priations of both Houses of Congress 15 days prior to or-20 ganizational changes which result in the transfer of 25 or 21 more full-time equivalents from one organizational unit of 22 the Department of Veterans Affairs to another. 23 S EC. 227. The Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall 24 provide on a quarterly basis to the Committees on Appro-25 63 •HR 4366 EH priations of both Houses of Congress notification of any 1 single national outreach and awareness marketing cam-2 paign in which obligations exceed $1,000,000. 3 (INCLUDING TRANSFER OF FUNDS) 4 S EC. 228. The Secretary of Veterans Affairs, upon 5 determination that such action is necessary to address 6 needs of the Veterans Health Administration, may trans-7 fer to the ‘‘Medical Services’’ account any discretionary 8 appropriations made available for fiscal year 2024 in this 9 title (except appropriations made to the ‘‘General Oper-10 ating Expenses, Veterans Benefits Administration’’ ac-11 count) or any discretionary unobligated balances within 12 the Department of Veterans Affairs, including those ap-13 propriated for fiscal year 2024, that were provided in ad-14 vance by appropriations Acts: Provided, That transfers 15 shall be made only with the approval of the Office of Man-16 agement and Budget: Provided further, That the transfer 17 authority provided in this section is in addition to any 18 other transfer authority provided by law: Provided further, 19 That no amounts may be transferred from amounts that 20 were designated by Congress as an emergency requirement 21 pursuant to a concurrent resolution on the budget or the 22 Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 23 1985: Provided further, That such authority to transfer 24 may not be used unless for higher priority items, based 25 64 •HR 4366 EH on emergent healthcare requirements, than those for 1 which originally appropriated and in no case where the 2 item for which funds are requested has been denied by 3 Congress: Provided further, That, upon determination that 4 all or part of the funds transferred from an appropriation 5 are not necessary, such amounts may be transferred back 6 to that appropriation and shall be available for the same 7 purposes as originally appropriated: Provided further, 8 That before a transfer may take place, the Secretary of 9 Veterans Affairs shall request from the Committees on 10 Appropriations of both Houses of Congress the authority 11 to make the transfer and receive approval of that request. 12 (INCLUDING TRANSFER OF FUNDS) 13 S EC. 229. Amounts made available for the Depart-14 ment of Veterans Affairs for fiscal year 2024, under the 15 ‘‘Board of Veterans Appeals’’ and the ‘‘General Operating 16 Expenses, Veterans Benefits Administration’’ accounts 17 may be transferred between such accounts: Provided, That 18 before a transfer may take place, the Secretary of Vet-19 erans Affairs shall request from the Committees on Appro-20 priations of both Houses of Congress the authority to 21 make the transfer and receive approval of that request. 22 S EC. 230. The Secretary of Veterans Affairs may not 23 reprogram funds among major construction projects or 24 programs if such instance of reprogramming will exceed 25 65 •HR 4366 EH $7,000,000, unless such reprogramming is approved by 1 the Committees on Appropriations of both Houses of Con-2 gress. 3 S EC. 231. (a) The Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall 4 ensure that the toll-free suicide hotline under section 5 1720F(h) of title 38, United States Code— 6 (1) provides to individuals who contact the hot-7 line immediate assistance from a trained profes-8 sional; and 9 (2) adheres to all requirements of the American 10 Association of Suicidology. 11 (b)(1) None of the funds made available by this Act 12 may be used to enforce or otherwise carry out any Execu-13 tive action that prohibits the Secretary of Veterans Affairs 14 from appointing an individual to occupy a vacant civil 15 service position, or establishing a new civil service position, 16 at the Department of Veterans Affairs with respect to 17 such a position relating to the hotline specified in sub-18 section (a). 19 (2) In this subsection— 20 (A) the term ‘‘civil service’’ has the meaning 21 given such term in section 2101(1) of title 5, United 22 States Code; and 23 (B) the term ‘‘Executive action’’ includes— 24 66 •HR 4366 EH (i) any Executive order, Presidential 1 memorandum, or other action by the President; 2 and 3 (ii) any agency policy, order, or other di-4 rective. 5 (c)(1) The Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall con-6 duct a study on the effectiveness of the hotline specified 7 in subsection (a) during the 5-year period beginning on 8 January 1, 2016, based on an analysis of national suicide 9 data and data collected from such hotline. 10 (2) At a minimum, the study required by paragraph 11 (1) shall— 12 (A) determine the number of veterans who con-13 tact the hotline specified in subsection (a) and who 14 receive follow up services from the hotline or mental 15 health services from the Department of Veterans Af-16 fairs thereafter; 17 (B) determine the number of veterans who con-18 tact the hotline who are not referred to, or do not 19 continue receiving, mental health care who commit 20 suicide; and 21 (C) determine the number of veterans described 22 in subparagraph (A) who commit or attempt suicide. 23 S EC. 232. Effective during the period beginning on 24 October 1, 2018, and ending on January 1, 2025, none 25 67 •HR 4366 EH of the funds made available to the Secretary of Veterans 1 Affairs by this or any other Act may be obligated or ex-2 pended in contravention of the ‘‘Veterans Health Adminis-3 tration Clinical Preventive Services Guidance Statement 4 on the Veterans Health Administration’s Screening for 5 Breast Cancer Guidance’’ published on May 10, 2017, as 6 issued by the Veterans Health Administration National 7 Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. 8 S EC. 233. (a) Notwithstanding any other provision 9 of law, the amounts appropriated or otherwise made avail-10 able to the Department of Veterans Affairs for the ‘‘Med-11 ical Services’’ account may be used to provide— 12 (1) fertility counseling and treatment using as-13 sisted reproductive technology to a covered veteran 14 or the spouse of a covered veteran; or 15 (2) adoption reimbursement to a covered vet-16 eran. 17 (b) In this section: 18 (1) The term ‘‘service-connected’’ has the 19 meaning given such term in section 101 of title 38, 20 United States Code. 21 (2) The term ‘‘covered veteran’’ means a vet-22 eran, as such term is defined in section 101 of title 23 38, United States Code, who has a service-connected 24 68 •HR 4366 EH disability that results in the inability of the veteran 1 to procreate without the use of fertility treatment. 2 (3) The term ‘‘assisted reproductive tech-3 nology’’ means benefits relating to reproductive as-4 sistance provided to a member of the Armed Forces 5 who incurs a serious injury or illness on active duty 6 pursuant to section 1074(c)(4)(A) of title 10, United 7 States Code, as described in the memorandum on 8 the subject of ‘‘Policy for Assisted Reproductive 9 Services for the Benefit of Seriously or Severely Ill/ 10 Injured (Category II or III) Active Duty Service 11 Members’’ issued by the Assistant Secretary of De-12 fense for Health Affairs on April 3, 2012, and the 13 guidance issued to implement such policy, including 14 any limitations on the amount of such benefits avail-15 able to such a member except that— 16 (A) the time periods regarding embryo 17 cryopreservation and storage set forth in part 18 III(G) and in part IV(H) of such memorandum 19 shall not apply; and 20 (B) such term includes embryo 21 cryopreservation and storage without limitation 22 on the duration of such cryopreservation and 23 storage. 24 69 •HR 4366 EH (4) The term ‘‘adoption reimbursement’’ means 1 reimbursement for the adoption-related expenses for 2 an adoption that is finalized after the date of the en-3 actment of this Act under the same terms as apply 4 under the adoption reimbursement program of the 5 Department of Defense, as authorized in Depart-6 ment of Defense Instruction 1341.09, including the 7 reimbursement limits and requirements set forth in 8 such instruction. 9 (c) Amounts made available for the purposes speci-10 fied in subsection (a) of this section are subject to the 11 requirements for funds contained in section 508 of division 12 H of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018 (Public 13 Law 115–141). 14 S EC. 234. None of the funds appropriated or other-15 wise made available by this Act or any other Act for the 16 Department of Veterans Affairs may be used in a manner 17 that is inconsistent with: (1) section 842 of the Transpor-18 tation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, the 19 Judiciary, the District of Columbia, and Independent 20 Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006 (Public Law 109–115; 21 119 Stat. 2506); or (2) section 8110(a)(5) of title 38, 22 United States Code. 23 S EC. 235. Section 842 of Public Law 109–115 shall 24 not apply to conversion of an activity or function of the 25 70 •HR 4366 EH Veterans Health Administration, Veterans Benefits Ad-1 ministration, or National Cemetery Administration to con-2 tractor performance by a business concern that is at least 3 51 percent owned by one or more Indian Tribes as defined 4 in section 5304(e) of title 25, United States Code, or one 5 or more Native Hawaiian Organizations as defined in sec-6 tion 637(a)(15) of title 15, United States Code. 7 S EC. 236. (a) Except as provided in subsection (b), 8 the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, in consultation with the 9 Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Labor, shall dis-10 continue using Social Security account numbers to identify 11 individuals in all information systems of the Department 12 of Veterans Affairs as follows: 13 (1) For all veterans submitting to the Secretary 14 of Veterans Affairs new claims for benefits under 15 laws administered by the Secretary, not later than 16 September 30, 2024. 17 (2) For all individuals not described in para-18 graph (1), not later than March 23, 2026. 19 (b) The Secretary of Veterans Affairs may use a So-20 cial Security account number to identify an individual in 21 an information system of the Department of Veterans Af-22 fairs if and only if the use of such number is required 23 to obtain information the Secretary requires from an in-24 71 •HR 4366 EH formation system that is not under the jurisdiction of the 1 Secretary. 2 (c) The matter in subsections (a) and (b) shall super-3 sede section 238 of division F of Public Law 116–94. 4 S EC. 237. For funds provided to the Department of 5 Veterans Affairs for each of fiscal year 2024 and 2025 6 for ‘‘Medical Services’’, section 239 of division A of Public 7 Law 114–223 shall apply. 8 S EC. 238. None of the funds appropriated in this or 9 prior appropriations Acts or otherwise made available to 10 the Department of Veterans Affairs may be used to trans-11 fer any amounts from the Filipino Veterans Equity Com-12 pensation Fund to any other account within the Depart-13 ment of Veterans Affairs. 14 S EC. 239. Of the funds provided to the Department 15 of Veterans Affairs for each of fiscal year 2024 and fiscal 16 year 2025 for ‘‘Medical Services’’, funds may be used in 17 each year to carry out and expand the child care program 18 authorized by section 205 of Public Law 111–163, not-19 withstanding subsection (e) of such section. 20 S EC. 240. None of the funds appropriated or other-21 wise made available in this title may be used by the Sec-22 retary of Veterans Affairs to enter into an agreement re-23 lated to resolving a dispute or claim with an individual 24 that would restrict in any way the individual from speak-25 72 •HR 4366 EH ing to members of Congress or their staff on any topic 1 not otherwise prohibited from disclosure by Federal law 2 or required by Executive order to be kept secret in the 3 interest of national defense or the conduct of foreign af-4 fairs. 5 S EC. 241. For funds provided to the Department of 6 Veterans Affairs for each of fiscal year 2024 and 2025, 7 section 258 of division A of Public Law 114–223 shall 8 apply. 9 S EC. 242. (a) None of the funds appropriated or oth-10 erwise made available by this Act may be used to deny 11 an Inspector General funded under this Act timely access 12 to any records, documents, or other materials available to 13 the department or agency over which that Inspector Gen-14 eral has responsibilities under the Inspector General Act 15 of 1978 (5 U.S.C. App.), or to prevent or impede the ac-16 cess of the Inspector General to such records, documents, 17 or other materials, under any provision of law, except a 18 provision of law that expressly refers to such Inspector 19 General and expressly limits the right of access. 20 (b) A department or agency covered by this section 21 shall provide its Inspector General access to all records, 22 documents, and other materials in a timely manner. 23 (c) Each Inspector General shall ensure compliance 24 with statutory limitations on disclosure relevant to the in-25 73 •HR 4366 EH formation provided by the establishment over which that 1 Inspector General has responsibilities under the Inspector 2 General Act of 1978 (5 U.S.C. App.). 3 (d) Each Inspector General covered by this section 4 shall report to the Committee on Appropriations of the 5 Senate and the Committee on Appropriations of the House 6 of Representatives within 5 calendar days of any failure 7 by any department or agency covered by this section to 8 comply with this requirement. 9 S EC. 243. None of the funds made available in this 10 Act may be used in a manner that would increase wait 11 times for veterans who seek care at medical facilities of 12 the Department of Veterans Affairs. 13 S EC. 244. None of the funds appropriated or other-14 wise made available by this Act to the Veterans Health 15 Administration may be used in fiscal year 2024 to convert 16 any program which received specific purpose funds in fis-17 cal year 2023 to a general purpose funded program unless 18 the Secretary of Veterans Affairs submits written notifica-19 tion of any such proposal to the Committees on Appropria-20 tions of both Houses of Congress at least 30 days prior 21 to any such action and an approval is issued by the Com-22 mittees. 23 S EC. 245. For funds provided to the Department of 24 Veterans Affairs for each of fiscal year 2024 and 2025, 25 74 •HR 4366 EH section 248 of division A of Public Law 114–223 shall 1 apply. 2 S EC. 246. (a) None of the funds appropriated or oth-3 erwise made available by this Act may be used to conduct 4 research commencing on or after October 1, 2019, that 5 uses any canine, feline, or non-human primate unless the 6 Secretary of Veterans Affairs approves such research spe-7 cifically and in writing pursuant to subsection (b). 8 (b)(1) The Secretary of Veterans Affairs may approve 9 the conduct of research commencing on or after October 10 1, 2019, using canines, felines, or non-human primates if 11 the Secretary determines that— 12 (A) the scientific objectives of the research can 13 only be met by using such canines, felines, or non- 14 human primates; 15 (B) such scientific objectives are directly related 16 to an illness or injury that is combat-related; and 17 (C) the research is consistent with the revised 18 Department of Veterans Affairs canine research pol-19 icy document dated December 15, 2017, including 20 any subsequent revisions to such document. 21 (2) The Secretary may not delegate the authority 22 under this subsection. 23 (c) If the Secretary approves any new research pursu-24 ant to subsection (b), not later than 30 days before the 25 75 •HR 4366 EH commencement of such research, the Secretary shall sub-1 mit to the Committees on Appropriations of the Senate 2 and House of Representatives a report describing— 3 (1) the nature of the research to be conducted 4 using canines, felines, or non-human primates; 5 (2) the date on which the Secretary approved 6 the research; 7 (3) the justification for the determination of the 8 Secretary that the scientific objectives of such re-9 search could only be met using canines, felines, or 10 non-human primates; 11 (4) the frequency and duration of such re-12 search; and 13 (5) the protocols in place to ensure the neces-14 sity, safety, and efficacy of the research. 15 (d) Not later than 180 days after the date of the en-16 actment of this Act, and biannually thereafter, the Sec-17 retary shall submit to such Committees a report describ-18 ing— 19 (1) any research being conducted by the De-20 partment of Veterans Affairs using canines, felines, 21 or non-human primates as of the date of the sub-22 mittal of the report; 23 76 •HR 4366 EH (2) the circumstances under which such re-1 search was conducted using canines, felines, or non- 2 human primates; 3 (3) the justification for using canines, felines, 4 or non-human primates to conduct such research; 5 and 6 (4) the protocols in place to ensure the neces-7 sity, safety, and efficacy of such research. 8 (e) The Department shall implement a plan under 9 which the Secretary will eliminate or reduce the research 10 conducted using canines, felines, or non-human primates 11 by not later than 5 years after the date of enactment of 12 Public Law 116–94. 13 S EC. 247. (a) The Secretary of Veterans Affairs may 14 use amounts appropriated or otherwise made available in 15 this title to ensure that the ratio of veterans to full-time 16 employment equivalents within any program of rehabilita-17 tion conducted under chapter 31 of title 38, United States 18 Code, does not exceed 125 veterans to one full-time em-19 ployment equivalent. 20 (b) Not later than 180 days after the date of the en-21 actment of this Act, the Secretary shall submit to Con-22 gress a report on the programs of rehabilitation conducted 23 under chapter 31 of title 38, United States Code, includ-24 ing— 25 77 •HR 4366 EH (1) an assessment of the veteran-to-staff ratio 1 for each such program; and 2 (2) recommendations for such action as the 3 Secretary considers necessary to reduce the veteran- 4 to-staff ratio for each such program. 5 S EC. 248. Amounts made available for the ‘‘Veterans 6 Health Administration, Medical Community Care’’ ac-7 count in this or any other Act for fiscal years 2024 and 8 2025 may be used for expenses that would otherwise be 9 payable from the Veterans Choice Fund established by 10 section 802 of the Veterans Access, Choice, and Account-11 ability Act, as amended (38 U.S.C. 1701 note). 12 S EC. 249. Obligations and expenditures applicable to 13 the ‘‘Medical Services’’ account in fiscal years 2017 14 through 2019 for aid to state homes (as authorized by 15 section 1741 of title 38, United States Code) shall remain 16 in the ‘‘Medical Community Care’’ account for such fiscal 17 years. 18 S EC. 250. Of the amounts made available for the De-19 partment of Veterans Affairs for fiscal year 2024, in this 20 or any other Act, under the ‘‘Veterans Health Administra-21 tion—Medical Services’’, ‘‘Veterans Health Administra-22 tion—Medical Community Care’’, ‘‘Veterans Health Ad-23 ministration—Medical Support and Compliance’’, and 24 ‘‘Veterans Health Administration—Medical Facilities’’ ac-25 78 •HR 4366 EH counts, $1,279,096,000 shall be made available for gen-1 der-specific care and programmatic efforts to deliver care 2 for women veterans. 3 S EC. 251. Notwithstanding any other law, by no later 4 than September 30, 2023, the Secretary shall commence 5 construction of the Community Based Outpatient Clinic 6 in Bakersfield, California in accordance with Lease 7 No.36C10F20L0008. 8 S EC. 252. None of the funds made available in this 9 Act shall be expended for monthly payments under Lease 10 No. VA10112R0032, including section 11 of the lease, 11 that exceed $223,166.67 unless required for maintenance 12 and repairs or improvements related to the form, fit, or 13 function of the facility that directly enhances the safety 14 of veterans or improves healthcare services. 15 S EC. 253. Not later than 30 days after the end of 16 each fiscal quarter, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall 17 submit to the Committees on Appropriations of both 18 Houses of Congress a quarterly report on the status of 19 the ‘‘Veterans Medical Care and Health Fund’’, estab-20 lished to execute section 8002 of the American Rescue 21 Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117–2): Provided, That, 22 at a minimum, the report shall include an update on obli-23 gations by program, project or activity and a plan for ex-24 pending the remaining funds: Provided further, That the 25 79 •HR 4366 EH Secretary of Veterans Affairs must submit notification of 1 any plans to reallocate funds from the current apportion-2 ment categories of ‘‘Medical Services’’, ‘‘Medical Support 3 and Compliance’’, ‘‘Medical Facilities’’, ‘‘Medical Commu-4 nity Care’’, or ‘‘Medical and Prosthetic Research’’, includ-5 ing the amount and purpose of each reallocation to the 6 Committees on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress 7 and such Committees issue an approval, or absent a re-8 sponse, a period of 30 days has elapsed. 9 S EC. 254. Any amounts transferred to the Secretary 10 and administered by a corporation referred to in section 11 7364(b) of title 38, United States Code, between October 12 1, 2017 and September 30, 2018 for purposes of carrying 13 out an order placed with the Department of Veterans Af-14 fairs pursuant to section 1535 of title 31, United States 15 Code, that are available for obligation pursuant to section 16 7364(b)(1) of title 38, United States Code, are to remain 17 available for the liquidation of valid obligations incurred 18 by such corporation during the period of performance of 19 such order, provided that the Secretary of Veterans Af-20 fairs determines that such amounts need to remain avail-21 able for such liquidation. 22 S EC. 255. Unobligated balances available under the 23 headings ‘‘Construction, Major Projects’’ and ‘‘Construc-24 tion, Minor Projects’’ may be obligated by the Secretary 25 80 •HR 4366 EH of Veterans Affairs for a facility pursuant to section 1 2(e)(1) of the Communities Helping Invest through Prop-2 erty and Improvements Needed for Veterans Act of 2016 3 (Public Law 114–294; 38 U.S.C. 8103 note), as amended, 4 to provide additional funds or to fund an escalation clause 5 under such section of such Act: Provided, That before such 6 unobligated balances are obligated pursuant to this sec-7 tion, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall request from 8 the Committees on Appropriations of both Houses of Con-9 gress the authority to obligate such unobligated balances 10 and such Committees issue an approval, or absent a re-11 sponse, a period of 30 days has elapsed: Provided further, 12 That the request to obligate such unobligated balances 13 must provide Congress notice that the entity described in 14 section 2(a)(2) of Public Law 114–294, as amended, has 15 exhausted available cost containment approaches as set 16 forth in the agreement under section 2(c) of such Public 17 Law. 18 S EC. 256. Of the unobligated balances available to 19 the Department of Veterans Affairs from prior appropria-20 tions Acts, the following funds are hereby rescinded from 21 the following accounts in the amounts specified: 22 ‘‘Veterans Health Administration—Medical 23 Services’’, $4,933,113,000; 24 81 •HR 4366 EH ‘‘Veterans Health Administration—Medical 1 Community Care’’, $1,909,069,000; and 2 ‘‘Veterans Health Administration—Medical Fa-3 cilities’’, $250,515,000. 4 S EC. 257. Not later than 30 days after the date the 5 funds become available, the Secretary shall submit to the 6 Committees on Appropriations an expenditure plan for 7 funds made available through the Fiscal Responsibility 8 Act of 2023 (P.L. 118-5) for the Cost of War Toxic Expo-9 sures Fund for fiscal years 2024 and 2025. 10 S EC. 258. (a) None of the funds made available in 11 this Act may be used to implement, administer, or other-12 wise carry out the Department of Veterans Affairs interim 13 final rule published on September 9, 2022, or any suc-14 cessor to such rule, or to propose, promulgate, or imple-15 ment any substantially similar rule or policy. 16 (b) None of the funds appropriated in this Act shall 17 be expended for any abortion, including through a medical 18 benefits package or health benefits program that includes 19 coverage of abortion. 20 (c) The limitations established in subsection (b) shall 21 not apply to an abortion— 22 (1) if the pregnancy is the result of an act of 23 rape or incest; or 24 82 •HR 4366 EH (2) in the case where a woman suffers from a 1 physical disorder, physical injury, or physical illness, 2 including a life-endangering physical condition 3 caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself, that 4 would, as certified by a physician, place the woman 5 in danger of death unless an abortion is performed. 6 S EC. 259. None of the funds made available by this 7 Act may be used for surgical procedures or hormone thera-8 pies for the purposes of gender affirming care. 9 S EC. 260. None of the funds made available by this 10 Act may be used by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to 11 fly or display a flag over a facility of the Department of 12 Veterans Affairs or a national cemetery other than the 13 flag of the United States, the flag of a State, Territory, 14 or District of Columbia, the flag of an Indian Tribal gov-15 ernment, the flag of the Department, the flag of an Armed 16 Force, or the POW/MIA flag. 17 83 •HR 4366 EH TITLE III 1 RELATED AGENCIES 2 A MERICANBATTLEMONUMENTSCOMMISSION 3 SALARIES AND EXPENSES 4 For necessary expenses, not otherwise provided for, 5 of the American Battle Monuments Commission, including 6 the acquisition of land or interest in land in foreign coun-7 tries; purchases and repair of uniforms for caretakers of 8 national cemeteries and monuments outside of the United 9 States and its territories and possessions; rent of office 10 and garage space in foreign countries; purchase (one-for- 11 one replacement basis only) and hire of passenger motor 12 vehicles; not to exceed $15,000 for official reception and 13 representation expenses; and insurance of official motor 14 vehicles in foreign countries, when required by law of such 15 countries, $158,630,000, to remain available until ex-16 pended. 17 FOREIGN CURRENCY FLUCTUATIONS ACCOUNT 18 For necessary expenses, not otherwise provided for, 19 of the American Battle Monuments Commission, such 20 sums as may be necessary, to remain available until ex-21 pended, for purposes authorized by section 2109 of title 22 36, United States Code. 23 84 •HR 4366 EH UNITEDSTATESCOURT OFAPPEALS FORVETERANS 1 C LAIMS 2 SALARIES AND EXPENSES 3 For necessary expenses for the operation of the 4 United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims as 5 authorized by sections 7251 through 7298 of title 38, 6 United States Code, $47,200,000: Provided, That 7 $3,385,000 shall be available for the purpose of providing 8 financial assistance as described and in accordance with 9 the process and reporting procedures set forth under this 10 heading in Public Law 102–229. 11 D EPARTMENT OFDEFENSE—CIVIL 12 C EMETERIALEXPENSES, ARMY 13 SALARIES AND EXPENSES 14 For necessary expenses for maintenance, operation, 15 and improvement of Arlington National Cemetery and Sol-16 diers’ and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery, including 17 the purchase or lease of passenger motor vehicles for re-18 placement on a one-for-one basis only, and not to exceed 19 $2,000 for official reception and representation expenses, 20 $100,267,000, of which not to exceed $15,000,000 shall 21 remain available until September 30, 2026. In addition, 22 such sums as may be necessary for parking maintenance, 23 repairs and replacement, to be derived from the ‘‘Lease 24 85 •HR 4366 EH of Department of Defense Real Property for Defense 1 Agencies’’ account. 2 CONSTRUCTION 3 For necessary expenses for planning and design and 4 construction at Arlington National Cemetery and Soldiers’ 5 and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery, $88,600,000, to 6 remain available until expended for planning and design 7 and construction associated with the Southern Expansion 8 project at Arlington National Cemetery. 9 A RMEDFORCESRETIREMENTHOME 10 TRUST FUND 11 For expenses necessary for the Armed Forces Retire-12 ment Home to operate and maintain the Armed Forces 13 Retirement Home—Washington, District of Columbia, 14 and the Armed Forces Retirement Home—Gulfport, Mis-15 sissippi, to be paid from funds available in the Armed 16 Forces Retirement Home Trust Fund, $77,000,000, to re-17 main available until September 30, 2025, of which 18 $8,940,000 shall remain available until expended for con-19 struction and renovation of the physical plants at the 20 Armed Forces Retirement Home—Washington, District of 21 Columbia, and the Armed Forces Retirement Home— 22 Gulfport, Mississippi: Provided, That of the amounts made 23 available under this heading from funds available in the 24 Armed Forces Retirement Home Trust Fund, 25 86 •HR 4366 EH $25,000,000 shall be paid from the general fund of the 1 Treasury to the Trust Fund. 2 A DMINISTRATIVEPROVISION 3 S EC. 301. Amounts deposited into the special account 4 established under 10 U.S.C. 7727 are appropriated and 5 shall be available until expended to support activities at 6 the Army National Military Cemeteries. 7 87 •HR 4366 EH TITLE IV 1 GENERAL PROVISIONS 2 S EC. 401. No part of any appropriation contained in 3 this Act shall remain available for obligation beyond the 4 current fiscal year unless expressly so provided herein. 5 S EC. 402. None of the funds made available in this 6 Act may be used for any program, project, or activity, 7 when it is made known to the Federal entity or official 8 to which the funds are made available that the program, 9 project, or activity is not in compliance with any Federal 10 law relating to risk assessment, the protection of private 11 property rights, or unfunded mandates. 12 S EC. 403. All departments and agencies funded under 13 this Act are encouraged, within the limits of the existing 14 statutory authorities and funding, to expand their use of 15 ‘‘E-Commerce’’ technologies and procedures in the con-16 duct of their business practices and public service activi-17 ties. 18 S EC. 404. Unless stated otherwise, all reports and no-19 tifications required by this Act shall be submitted to the 20 Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Af-21 fairs, and Related Agencies of the Committee on Appro-22 priations of the House of Representatives and the Sub-23 committee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, 24 88 •HR 4366 EH and Related Agencies of the Committee on Appropriations 1 of the Senate. 2 S EC. 405. None of the funds made available in this 3 Act may be transferred to any department, agency, or in-4 strumentality of the United States Government except 5 pursuant to a transfer made by, or transfer authority pro-6 vided in, this or any other appropriations Act. 7 S EC. 406. None of the funds made available in this 8 Act may be used for a project or program named for an 9 individual serving as a Member, Delegate, or Resident 10 Commissioner of the United States House of Representa-11 tives. 12 S EC. 407. (a) Any agency receiving funds made avail-13 able in this Act, shall, subject to subsections (b) and (c), 14 post on the public Web site of that agency any report re-15 quired to be submitted by the Congress in this or any 16 other Act, upon the determination by the head of the agen-17 cy that it shall serve the national interest. 18 (b) Subsection (a) shall not apply to a report if— 19 (1) the public posting of the report com-20 promises national security; or 21 (2) the report contains confidential or propri-22 etary information. 23 (c) The head of the agency posting such report shall 24 do so only after such report has been made available to 25 89 •HR 4366 EH the requesting Committee or Committees of Congress for 1 no less than 30 days. 2 S EC. 408. (a) None of the funds made available in 3 this Act may be used to maintain or establish a computer 4 network unless such network blocks the viewing, 5 downloading, and exchanging of pornography. 6 (b) Nothing in subsection (a) shall limit the use of 7 funds necessary for any Federal, State, tribal, or local law 8 enforcement agency or any other entity carrying out crimi-9 nal investigations, prosecution, or adjudication activities. 10 S EC. 409. None of the funds made available in this 11 Act may be used by an agency of the executive branch 12 to pay for first-class travel by an employee of the agency 13 in contravention of sections 301–10.122 through 301– 14 10.124 of title 41, Code of Federal Regulations. 15 S EC. 410. None of the funds made available in this 16 Act may be used to execute a contract for goods or serv-17 ices, including construction services, where the contractor 18 has not complied with Executive Order No. 12989. 19 S EC. 411. None of the funds made available by this 20 Act may be used in contravention of section 101(e)(8) of 21 title 10, United States Code. 22 S EC. 412. (a) INGENERAL.—None of the funds ap-23 propriated or otherwise made available to the Department 24 of Defense in this Act may be used to construct, renovate, 25 90 •HR 4366 EH or expand any facility in the United States, its territories, 1 or possessions to house any individual detained at United 2 States Naval Station, Guanta´namo Bay, Cuba, for the 3 purposes of detention or imprisonment in the custody or 4 under the control of the Department of Defense. 5 (b) The prohibition in subsection (a) shall not apply 6 to any modification of facilities at United States Naval 7 Station, Guanta´namo Bay, Cuba. 8 (c) An individual described in this subsection is any 9 individual who, as of June 24, 2009, is located at United 10 States Naval Station, Guanta´namo Bay, Cuba, and who— 11 (1) is not a citizen of the United States or a 12 member of the Armed Forces of the United States; 13 and 14 (2) is— 15 (A) in the custody or under the effective 16 control of the Department of Defense; or 17 (B) otherwise under detention at United 18 States Naval Station, Guanta´namo Bay, Cuba. 19 S EC. 413. None of the funds appropriated by this Act 20 may be used in any way, directly or indirectly, to influence 21 congressional action on any legislation or appropriation 22 matter pending before Congress, other than to commu-23 nicate to Members of Congress as described in 18 U.S.C. 24 1913. 25 91 •HR 4366 EH SEC. 414. None of the funds appropriated or other-1 wise made available by this Act may be made available 2 to implement, administer, apply, enforce, or carry out Ex-3 ecutive Order No. 13985 of January 20, 2021 (86 Fed. 4 Reg. 7009), Executive Order No. 14035 of June 25, 2021 5 (86 Fed. Reg. 34593), or Executive Order No. 14091 of 6 February 16, 2023 (88 Fed. Reg. 10825). 7 S EC. 415. None of the funds made available by this 8 Act may be used to carry out any program, project, or 9 activity that promotes or advances Critical Race Theory 10 or any concept associated with Critical Race Theory. 11 S EC. 416. (a) INGENERAL.—Notwithstanding sec-12 tion 7 of title 1, United States Code, section 1738C of 13 title 28, United States Code, or any other provision of law, 14 none of the funds provided by this Act, or previous appro-15 priations Acts, shall be used in whole or in part to take 16 any discriminatory action against a person, wholly or par-17 tially, on the basis that such person speaks, or acts, in 18 accordance with a sincerely held religious belief, or moral 19 conviction, that marriage is, or should be recognized as, 20 a union of one man and one woman. 21 (b) Discriminatory action defined.—As used in sub-22 section (a), a discriminatory action means any action 23 taken by the Federal Government to— 24 92 •HR 4366 EH (1) alter in any way the Federal tax treatment 1 of, or cause any tax, penalty, or payment to be as-2 sessed against, or deny, delay, or revoke an exemp-3 tion from taxation under section 501(a) of the Inter-4 nal Revenue Code of 1986 of, any person referred to 5 in subsection (a); 6 (2) disallow a deduction for Federal tax pur-7 poses of any charitable contribution made to or by 8 such person; 9 (3) withhold, reduce the amount or funding for, 10 exclude, terminate, or otherwise make unavailable or 11 deny, any Federal grant, contract, subcontract, co-12 operative agreement, guarantee, loan, scholarship, li-13 cense, certification, accreditation, employment, or 14 other similar position or status from or to such per-15 son; 16 (4) withhold, reduce, exclude, terminate, or oth-17 erwise make unavailable or deny, any entitlement or 18 benefit under a Federal benefit program, including 19 admission to, equal treatment in, or eligibility for a 20 degree from an educational program, from or to 21 such person; or 22 (5) withhold, reduce, exclude, terminate, or oth-23 erwise make unavailable or deny access or an entitle-24 ment to Federal property, facilities, educational in-25 93 •HR 4366 EH stitutions, speech fora (including traditional, limited, 1 and nonpublic fora), or charitable fundraising cam-2 paigns from or to such person. 3 (c) Accreditation; Licensure; Certification.—The 4 Federal Government shall consider accredited, licensed, or 5 certified for purposes of Federal law any person that 6 would be accredited, licensed, or certified, respectively, for 7 such purposes but for a determination against such person 8 wholly or partially on the basis that the person speaks, 9 or acts, in accordance with a sincerely held religious belief 10 or moral conviction described in subsection (a). 11 S EC. 417. None of the funds made available by this 12 Act may be used for any office, programs, or activity for 13 the purposes of diversity, equity, and inclusion training 14 or implementation. 15 S EC. 418. None of the funds made available by this 16 Act may be used to enforce any COVID–19 mask man-17 dates. 18 S EC. 419. None of the funds made available by this 19 Act may be used to administer, implement, or enforce Ex-20 ecutive Order No. 14057 (dated December 8, 2021). 21 SPENDING REDUCTION ACCOUNT 22 S EC. 420. $0. 23 S EC. 421. None of the funds appropriated or other-24 wise made available to the Department of Veterans Affairs 25 94 •HR 4366 EH in this Act may be used to enforce Veterans Health Direc-1 tive 1315 as it relates to— 2 (1) the policy stating that ‘‘VHA providers are 3 prohibited from completing forms or registering Vet-4 erans for participation in a State-approved mari-5 juana program’’; 6 (2) the directive for the ‘‘Deputy Under Sec-7 retary for Health for Operations and Management’’ 8 to ensure that ‘‘medical facility Directors are aware 9 that it is VHA policy for providers to assess Veteran 10 use of marijuana but providers are prohibited from 11 recommending, making referrals to or completing 12 paperwork for Veteran participation in State mari-13 juana programs’’; and 14 (3) the directive for the ‘‘VA Medical Facility 15 Director’’ to ensure that ‘‘VA facility staff are aware 16 of the following’’ ‘‘[t]he prohibition on recom-17 mending, making referrals to or completing forms 18 and registering Veterans for participation in State- 19 approved marijuana programs’’. 20 S EC. 422. None of the funds made available by this 21 Act may be used by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to 22 report a determination under section 5502 of title 38, 23 United States Code, and section 3.353 of title 38 of the 24 Code of Federal Regulations, to the Department of Justice 25 95 •HR 4366 EH National Instant Criminal Background Check System es-1 tablished pursuant to section 103 of the Brady Handgun 2 Violence Prevention Act (34 U.S.C. 40901). 3 S EC. 423. None of the funds made available by this 4 Act may be used to carry out VHA Directive 1193.01, 5 ‘‘Coronavirus Disease 2019 Vaccination Program for Vet-6 erans Health Administration Health Care Personnel’’. 7 S EC. 424. None of the funds made available by this 8 Act may be used to modify or remove any display of the 9 Department of Veterans Affairs that bears the mission 10 statement ‘‘To fulfill President Lincoln’s promise ‘to care 11 for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, 12 and his orphan’ by serving and honoring the men and 13 women who are America’s veterans.’’’ 14 S EC. 425. None of the funds appropriated by this Act 15 may be used to implement any of the following executive 16 orders: 17 (1) Executive Order No. 13990, relating to 18 Protecting Public Health and the Environment and 19 Restoring Science To Tackle the Climate Crisis. 20 (2) Executive Order No. 14008, relating to 21 Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad. 22 (3) Section 6 of Executive Order No. 14013, re-23 lating to Rebuilding and Enhancing Programs To 24 96 •HR 4366 EH Resettle Refugees and Planning for the Impact of 1 Climate Change on Migration. 2 (4) Executive Order No. 14030, relating to Cli-3 mate-Related Financial Risk. 4 (5) Executive Order No. 14057, relating to 5 Catalyzing Clean Energy Industries and Jobs 6 Through Federal Sustainability. 7 (6) Executive Order No. 14082, relating to Im-8 plementation of the Energy and Infrastructure Pro-9 visions of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. 10 (7) Executive Order No. 14096, relating to Re-11 vitalizing Our Nation’s Commitment to Environ-12 mental Justice for All. 13 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Military Construction, 14 Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations 15 Act, 2024’’. 16 Passed the House of Representatives July 27, 2023. Attest: Clerk. 118 TH CONGRESS 1 ST S ESSION H. R. 4366 AN ACT Making appropriations for military construction, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2024, and for other purposes.