WASHINGTON, DC — President Donald Trump signed an executive order last month directing VA to begin work on two major facilities while simultaneously strengthening the department’s ability to fire current employees. The order also directed VA to reduce wait times through a variety of means, including expanding clinic hours, providing weekend appointments and expanding the use of virtual healthcare.
The brunt of the order was centered on the creation of the National Center for Warrior Independence, which would provide resources and housing to homeless veterans to be located on the West Los Angeles VAMC campus. The center would house as many as 6,000 veterans who would have access to healthcare, substance abuse treatment and other resources to ensure they can “return to productive work and community engagement.”
“More than one hundred years ago, Senator John Percival Jones and Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker generously donated hundreds of acres of land that they owned in West Los Angeles on the condition that it be used to house disabled veterans,” the executive order states. “The campus once featured a chapel, billiard hall, 1,000-seat theater, and housed about 6,000 veterans, but the federal government has since allowed this crown jewel of veteran care to deteriorate over the last few decades. The [VA] has leased parts of the property to a private school, private companies, and the baseball team of the University of California, Los Angeles, sometimes at significantly below-market prices.”
The use of the campus has been a focus of debate and litigation over the years. In 2011, a group of veterans filed a lawsuit against VA alleging the department was in breach of its fiduciary duty by using the land for purposes other than caring for disabled veterans. A settlement reached in 2016 required VA to draft a plan to build 1,200 units of subsidized housing on the campus. However, it was only in the last couple of years that any construction began. As of fall 2024, only 233 units were built and occupied.
That delay sparked an additional lawsuit asking for 4,000 units—enough to accommodate every homeless veteran in Los Angeles. Last September, a judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, ordering VA to construct an additional 1,800 units within six years with 750 temporary units available within 18 months.
VA appealed the ruling, and a hearing was held in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in April. The judges had not yet ruled on the appeal.
It’s unclear how this executive order affects the court ruling and VA has not stated whether it will drop its appeal. However, in a statement following the executive order, VA Secretary Doug Collins said the order “will enable us to ensure VA’s West Los Angeles Campus is being used as intended: to benefit veterans. Our goal is to turn the campus into a beacon of hope and a destination for homeless veterans from across the nation who can travel there to find housing and support and start their journey back to self-sufficiency.”
The order directs the secretary of Housing and Urban Development to use vouchers to support homeless veterans in Los Angeles and around the nation to take advantage of the campus. Whether this refers to vouchers available through the already-existing HUD-VA Supportive Housing program, the order does not say.
The new center will be paid for with funds that “may have been spent on housing or other services for illegal aliens,” the order states.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, the executive order directs VA to conduct a feasibility study at the Manchester, NH, VAMC with the goal of expanding its services to meet the level of a full-service medical center. New Hampshire is currently the only state in the contiguous United States without such a facility.
For years, legislators and veterans’ advocates have lamented the infrastructure-related problems that have plagued the Manchester hospital, including water and heating problems that required patients in its long-term care facility to be relocated. Twice in recent years, a burst water pipe has forced the medical center to close its operating room for months at a time.
The New Hampshire legislative delegation sent a letter to Collins calling on him to follow through with the president’s promise.
“VA must take this effort seriously and give it the full transparency and resources it deserves,” the lawmakers stated. “This includes conducting a comprehensive, evidence-based analysis of the healthcare needs and access across the state.”
The executive order also directs VA to make full use of the VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protect Act of 2017 and to “investigate and take steps to rectify the previous administration’s decision to rehire and reinstate back pay for employees previously fired for misconduct and direct such savings back toward care, benefits, and services.”
A provision in the 2017 act gave VA authority to fast-track the firing of senior employees. A series of successful unfair labor practice lawsuits resulted in VA paying out settlements to employees. Subsequently, the department stopped using the provision, as it resulted in more court dates than successful removals.
Earlier this year, Trump signed an order stripping union protections from workers in several federal agencies, including VA. How that order might impact any future unfair labor practice lawsuits is unknown.
The most sweeping section of the executive order is one directing VA to develop a strategy to improve appointment wait times. Suggested strategies include expanding clinic hours, providing weekend appointments, expanding virtual healthcare, and including options for offering treatment for veterans at select military treatment facilities and for military beneficiaries at VA facilities.
