Copies Of All Annual Reports Submitted In Accordance With Public Law 114-226 (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs)

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:

Copies of all Annual Reports for the years 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 & 2022 which the Secretary of The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is Mandated to Submit in accordance with Public Law 114-226 As Amended. Applicable excerpts of Public Law 114-226 As Amended are provided below for your convenient reference in processing this Request within the Mandated time to Respond in Accordance with Public Law.

Public Law 114-226 As Amended, Section 2(j):

(2) ANNUAL REPORT.—Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act, and not less frequently than annually thereafter, the Secretary shall submit to the Committees on Veterans’ Affairs of the Senate and House of Representatives, the Committees on Appropriations of the Senate and House of Representatives, and each Member of the Senate and the House of Representatives who represents the area in which the Campus is located an annual report evaluating all leases and land-sharing agreements carried out at the Campus, including- (A) an evaluation of the management of the revenue generated by the leases; and (B) the records described in subsection (b)(3)(D).

Public Law 114-226 As Amended, Section 2(b)(3)(D):

(3) A lease of real property for a term not to exceed 10 years to The Regents of the University of California, a corporation organized under the laws of the State of California, on behalf of its University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus (hereinafter in this section referred to as ‘‘The Regents’’), if—

(D) The Regents maintains records documenting the value of the additional services and support that The Regents provides pursuant to subparagraph (C) for the duration of the lease and makes such records available to the Secretary.

Public Law 114-226 As Amended, Section 2(b)(3)(C):

(C) The Regents expressly agrees to provide, during the term of the lease and to an extent and in a manner that the Secretary considers appropriate, additional services and support (for which The Regents is not compensated by the Secretary or through an existing medical affiliation agreement) that—

(i) principally benefit veterans and their families, including veterans that are severely disabled, women, aging, or homeless; and

(ii) may consist of activities relating to the medical, clinical, therapeutic, dietary, rehabilitative, legal, mental, spiritual, physical, recreational, research, and counseling needs of veterans and their families or any of the purposes specified in any of subparagraphs (A) through (I) of paragraph (2)

Public Law 114-226 As Amended, Section 2(b)(2):

(2) Any lease of real property for a term not to exceed 50 years to a third party to provide services that principally benefit veterans and their families and that are limited to one or more of the following purposes:

(A) The promotion of health and wellness, including nutrition and spiritual wellness.
(B) Education.
(C) Vocational training, skills building, or other training related to employment.
(D) Peer activities, socialization, or physical recreation.
(E) Assistance with legal issues and Federal benefits.
(F) Volunteerism.
(G) Family support services, including child care.
(H) Transportation.
(I) Services in support of one or more of the purposes specified in subparagraphs (A) through (H).

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Ryan Thompson

On 09/26/2022 I submitted a FOIA to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Requesting the following Public Information...

"Copies of all Annual Reports for the years 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 & 2022 which the Secretary of The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is Mandated to Submit in accordance with Public Law 114-226 As Amended. Applicable excerpts of Public Law 114-226 As Amended are provided below for your convenient reference in processing this Request within the Mandated time to Respond in Accordance with Public Law."

... Without ever receiving any Acknowledgement nor FOIA Tracking Number from US DVA regarding the foregoing Request, five months later I received the following communication from U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs VACO FOIA Service Compliance, Risk & Remediation Office of Information & Technology employee Jacqueline Short on 02/22/2023...

"All VA Annual Report can be find in the VA Reading Room at VA Public Access Link-Reading Room (efoia-host.com)<https://vapal.efoia-host.com/app/ReadingRoom.aspx>"

After reading said communication, I used the link to visit the suggested US DVA FOIA Reading Room website and reviewed every single Responsive document published between 01/01/2017 - 02/23/2023 to confirm that none of the Congressionally Mandated Annual Reports on WLA VA Soldiers Home Third Party Land Use per Public Law 114-226 appear. As a precaution, I archived a point-in-time, time-stamped capture of the forgoing with several Internet Archive repositories to evidence such.

As an aside, I also noticed US DVA's uncanny re-development of the FOIA Reading Room site removed the "Frequently Requested Documents" page which used to host most Responsive Documents to US DVA FOIAs pertaining to the WLA VA Soldiers Home.

Given the foregoing Facts I am corresponding in an abundance of caution to confirm whether or not U.S. DVA stands by its Ms. Short's 02/22/2022 declaration on behalf of U.S. DVA regarding this FOIA - because if so, it will in turn qualify a Public declaration by US DVA that VA Secretaries Denis McDonough and Robert Wilkie serially violated Public Law 114-226; which only compounds the illegality of most to all third-party land use at the WLA VA Soldiers Home in Our Country's Capital of Veteran Homelessness and Suicide... And that serious problem is in addition to the apparent matter of U.S. DVA grossly and negligently delaying a Response to my FOIA for four months, only to say Requested documents are somewhere the Requester must try to find on a potentially malfunctioning website application?

If the Requested Information exists, what's the legitimate purpose and ethical intent behind refusing to actually provide the Requested Information to the Requestor? Especially when such Information must be simple to locate if it exists, given the fact its Annual Reports VA SEC is Mandated at Public Law to provide multiple top-ranking US DVA Public Officials and Congress. The only reasonable conclusion to be drawn in event of further delays and improper responses misleading a Requestor to search for their own Information after not locating it in US DVA's FOIA Reading Room prior to this Request: is the Requested Information does not exist and that Fact is being intentionally suppressed from the Public at Taxpayers' expense. For U.S. DVA and Congress' own sake, I believe it will be in U.S. DVA, Congress and the Public's best interests to deliver the Requested Information or confirm again with certainty that it unfortunately does not exist.

Sincerely,

Ryan Thompson

On 09/26/2022 I submitted a FOIA to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Requesting the following Public Information...

"Copies of all Annual Reports for the years 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 & 2022 which the Secretary of The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is Mandated to Submit in accordance with Public Law 114-226 As Amended. Applicable excerpts of Public Law 114-226 As Amended are provided below for your convenient reference in processing this Request within the Mandated time to Respond in Accordance with Public Law."

... Without ever receiving any Acknowledgement nor FOIA Tracking Number from US DVA regarding the foregoing Request, five months later I received the following communication from U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs VACO FOIA Service Compliance, Risk & Remediation Office of Information & Technology employee Jacqueline Short on 02/22/2023...

"All VA Annual Report can be find in the VA Reading Room at VA Public Access Link-Reading Room (efoia-host.com)<https://vapal.efoia-host.com/app/ReadingRoom.aspx>"

After reading said communication, I used the link to visit the suggested US DVA FOIA Reading Room website and reviewed every single Responsive document published between 01/01/2017 - 02/23/2023 to confirm that none of the Congressionally Mandated Annual Reports on WLA VA Soldiers Home Third Party Land Use per Public Law 114-226 appear. As a precaution, I archived a point-in-time, time-stamped capture of the forgoing with several Internet Archive repositories to evidence such.

As an aside, I also noticed US DVA's uncanny re-development of the FOIA Reading Room site removed the "Frequently Requested Documents" page which used to host most Responsive Documents to US DVA FOIAs pertaining to the WLA VA Soldiers Home.

Given the foregoing Facts I am corresponding in an abundance of caution to confirm whether or not U.S. DVA stands by its Ms. Short's 02/22/2022 declaration on behalf of U.S. DVA regarding this FOIA - because if so, it will in turn qualify a Public declaration by US DVA that VA Secretaries Denis McDonough and Robert Wilkie serially violated Public Law 114-226; which only compounds the illegality of most to all third-party land use at the WLA VA Soldiers Home in Our Country's Capital of Veteran Homelessness and Suicide... And that serious problem is in addition to the apparent matter of U.S. DVA grossly and negligently delaying a Response to my FOIA for four months, only to say Requested documents are somewhere the Requester must try to find on a potentially malfunctioning website application?

If the Requested Information exists, what's the legitimate purpose and ethical intent behind refusing to actually provide the Requested Information to the Requestor? Especially when such Information must be simple to locate if it exists, given the fact its Annual Reports VA SEC is Mandated at Public Law to provide multiple top-ranking US DVA Public Officials and Congress. The only reasonable conclusion to be drawn in event of further delays and improper responses misleading a Requestor to search for their own Information after not locating it in US DVA's FOIA Reading Room prior to this Request: is the Requested Information does not exist and that Fact is being intentionally suppressed from the Public at Taxpayers' expense. For U.S. DVA and Congress' own sake, I believe it will be in U.S. DVA, Congress and the Public's best interests to deliver the Requested Information or confirm again with certainty that it unfortunately does not exist.

Sincerely,

Ryan Thompson