Documents › Executive orders › 14296
Executive Order 14296
Keeping Promises to Veterans and Establishing a National Center for Warrior Independence
Signed May 9, 2025, printed at 90 FR 20369. 5 sections of substance, 1,244 words.
This order sets up a center for veterans without homes. It puts land in California to that use.
Sec. 1. Purpose and Policy
Our Nation's security, prosperity, and freedom would not be possible without our veterans. Many service members paid the ultimate sacrifice. Many others bear visible and invisible wounds from their service. Too many veterans are homeless in America. Each veteran deserves our gratitude. Yet the Federal Government has not always treated veterans like the heroes they are. During the previous administration, unaccountable bureaucrats treated them shamefully, failing veterans when they needed help most and betraying the taxpayers who rightfully expect better. The story of the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center is indicative of this failure. 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
Our Nation's security, prosperity, and freedom would not be possible without our veterans. Many service members paid the ultimate sacrifice. Many others bear visible and invisible wounds from their service. Too many veterans are homeless in America. Each veteran deserves our gratitude. Yet the Federal Government has not always treated veterans like the heroes they are. During the previous administration, unaccountable bureaucrats treated them shamefully, failing veterans when they needed help most and betraying the taxpayers who rightfully expect better. The story of the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center is indicative of this failure. 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
This sets out the case the order makes. It says veterans built the country's security. It says too many now have no home. It says the last team failed them. It tells the story of a Los Angeles campus. Land there was given over a century ago. The gift was meant to house disabled veterans.
Sec. 2. Establishing the National Center for Warrior Independence
The Secretary of Veterans Affairs (Secretary) shall take all appropriate action to: (a) designate a National Center for Warrior Independence on the West Los Angeles VA Campus in which homeless veterans in the Los Angeles metropolitan area and around the Nation can seek and receive the care, benefits, and services to which they are entitled; (b) work with other municipalities and VA facilities to ensure that homeless veterans outside the Los Angeles metropolitan area who want to avail themselves of the National Center for Warrior Independence are provided the means to do so; (c) in coordination with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and the heads of any [[Page 20370]] other relevant executive departments or agencies, ensure that funds that may have been spent on housing or other services for illegal aliens are redirected to
The Secretary of Veterans Affairs (Secretary) shall take all appropriate action to: (a) designate a National Center for Warrior Independence on the West Los Angeles VA Campus in which homeless veterans in the Los Angeles metropolitan area and around the Nation can seek and receive the care, benefits, and services to which they are entitled; (b) work with other municipalities and VA facilities to ensure that homeless veterans outside the Los Angeles metropolitan area who want to avail themselves of the National Center for Warrior Independence are provided the means to do so; (c) in coordination with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and the heads of any [[Page 20370]] other relevant executive departments or agencies, ensure that funds that may have been spent on housing or other services for illegal aliens are redirected to
This sets up a center for homeless veterans. It sits on that Los Angeles campus. Veterans from elsewhere may come too. Other cities and VA sites must help them get there. Three agency heads must work together. Money once spent on housing migrants is to be redirected.
Sec. 3. Voucher Program
The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development shall, in consultation with the Secretary, use vouchers to support homeless veterans in the Los Angeles metropolitan area and around the Nation with respect to this effort.
The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development shall, in consultation with the Secretary, use vouchers to support homeless veterans in the Los Angeles metropolitan area and around the Nation with respect to this effort.
This uses housing vouchers. Housing must issue them. It works with another secretary. The vouchers support veterans without homes. The Los Angeles area is named first. The rest of the country is covered too. The vouchers back this wider effort.
Sec. 4. Restoring Accountability at the Department of Veterans Affairs
The Secretary shall take the following steps to restore accountability and excellent service at the Department: (a) take appropriate action against individuals who have committed misconduct, making full use of and in accordance with the Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act of 2017 (Public Law 115-41); and (b) 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 for veterans, in accordance with all applicable laws.
The Secretary shall take the following steps to restore accountability and excellent service at the Department: (a) take appropriate action against individuals who have committed misconduct, making full use of and in accordance with the Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act of 2017 (Public Law 115-41); and (b) 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 for veterans, in accordance with all applicable laws.
This is about staff conduct. The Secretary must act on those who did wrong. A 2017 accountability law is named. He must also review a past decision to rehire staff. Those staff had been fired for misconduct. Any savings must go back to veterans' care.
Sec. 5. Providing Choices and Excellence to Veterans
The Secretary shall take steps to increase the excellence of and options for care, benefits, and services for veterans including: (a) within 60 days of the date of this order, submitting a report to the President, through the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, with a plan to reduce wait times for Veterans Health Administration appointments that explores options like expanding office hours, offering weekend appointments, and increasing the use of virtual healthcare options; (b) within 30 days of the date of this order, directing a feasibility study at the Manchester VA Medical Center and within 180 days of this order, submitting to the President, through the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, an action plan to expand services to support a full-service medical center in New Hampshire so that it is no longer the only State in the contiguous United States without
The Secretary shall take steps to increase the excellence of and options for care, benefits, and services for veterans including: (a) within 60 days of the date of this order, submitting a report to the President, through the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, with a plan to reduce wait times for Veterans Health Administration appointments that explores options like expanding office hours, offering weekend appointments, and increasing the use of virtual healthcare options; (b) within 30 days of the date of this order, directing a feasibility study at the Manchester VA Medical Center and within 180 days of this order, submitting to the President, through the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, an action plan to expand services to support a full-service medical center in New Hampshire so that it is no longer the only State in the contiguous United States without
This is about care and wait times. Within 60 days a plan is due. Ideas include longer hours and weekend visits. Online care is named too. Within 30 days a study of one hospital must begin. Within 180 days a plan follows. It would make that hospital a full service center.
Sec. 6. General Provisions
Every order carries this. It is not what the order does.
(a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect: (i) the authority granted by law to an executive department, agency, or the head thereof; or (ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals. [[Page 20371]] (b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations. (c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person. (d) The Department of Veterans Affairs shall provide funding for this order's publication in the Federal Register. <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> (Presidential Sig.) THE
(a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect: (i) the authority granted by law to an executive department, agency, or the head thereof; or (ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals. [[Page 20371]] (b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations. (c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person. (d) The Department of Veterans Affairs shall provide funding for this order's publication in the Federal Register. <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> (Presidential Sig.) THE
This is the closing clause that nearly every order carries. It says the order does not change what the law already allows. It also says no one can sue to enforce it.
How this order is quoted
Each section is quoted as the order prints it, under its own number and heading. Executive orders are United States government works and are not under copyright. Long sections are cut at a sentence and the whole order is a click away.