[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 134 (Friday, July 16, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 37786-37787]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-15014]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS


Notice of Availability of the Draft Programmatic Environmental 
Impact Statement of the Department of Veterans Affairs Housing Loan 
Program

AGENCY: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

ACTION: Notice of availability.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: VA announces the availability of the Draft Programmatic 
Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for the Housing Loan Program 
(HLP) for public review and comment. The Draft PEIS identifies, 
analyzes and documents the potential physical, environmental, cultural, 
socioeconomic and cumulative impacts of continued administration and 
operation of VA's HLP. The comprehensive HLP, which is managed by VA's 
Veterans Benefits

[[Page 37787]]

Administration (VBA), administers VA-guaranteed housing loan benefits 
and other housing-related benefits that assist eligible Veterans, 
surviving spouses, active duty personnel, Selected Reservists and 
National Guardsmen (collectively referred to as Veterans) in 
purchasing, constructing, repairing, adapting, or improving a home.

DATES: VA invites Federal, state, tribal and local entities; non-profit 
organizations; businesses; interested parties; and the general public 
to submit written comments on the Draft PEIS during the 45-day public 
comment period that ends August 30, 2021.

ADDRESSES: Written comments may be submitted through http://www.regulations.gov. The Draft PEIS is available for viewing at the VA 
website https://www.benefits.va.gov/homeloans/environmental_impact.asp. 
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual public presentations will be 
available in lieu of public hearings, and the presentations will be 
continually accessible through the project website. Printed copies of 
the document may be obtained by contacting VA at 
[email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Elysium Drumm, Supervisory Management 
Analyst, Loan Guaranty Service, Veterans Benefits Administration, 
Department of Veterans Affairs, 810 Vermont Avenue NW, Washington, DC 
20420, 202-632-8862 (This is not a toll-free number.) or 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Draft PEIS was developed pursuant to the 
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, as amended (42 U.S.C. 
4321, et seq.), the Council on Environmental Quality's regulations for 
implementing the procedural provisions of NEPA (40 CFR 1500-1508) and 
VA's NEPA regulations titled ``Environmental Effects of the Department 
of Veterans Affairs Actions'' (38 CFR 26).
    The most significant element of the HLP is the provision of housing 
benefits that assist eligible Veterans in financing the purchase, 
construction, repair, or improvement of a home for their personal 
occupancy. See 38 U.S.C. 3701 et seq. VBA provides Federal assistance 
in the form of loans made, insured, or guaranteed by VA. VBA is also 
responsible for the management, marketing and disposition of real 
estate owned properties that VA acquires following the foreclosure of 
certain VA-guaranteed loans and loans held in VA's portfolio. Under 
HLP, VA also provides direct loans to Native American Veterans to 
purchase homes on trust, tribal, or communally-owned lands, and HLP 
extends grants for home adaptations to Veterans with service-connected 
disabilities through the Specially Adapted Housing program. HLP 
provides what can be, for some Veterans, their sole opportunity to 
obtain crucial housing loans and grants.
    Through the PEIS, VA is using the NEPA process to evaluate the 
potential physical, environmental, cultural, socioeconomic and 
cumulative effects of HLP; to invite public comments; and to assist 
with and inform future agency planning and decision- making related to 
HLP. The PEIS evaluates HLP, which assists hundreds of thousands of 
Veterans each year across the United States and its territories, to 
ensure VA appropriately considers the human environmental elements and 
effects specified in 40 CFR 1508.8 (including ecological, aesthetic, 
historic, cultural, economic, social, or health, whether direct, 
indirect, or cumulative) in carrying out the various elements and 
aspects of the program. Environmental topics that have been addressed 
in the Draft PEIS include the following: Aesthetics; air quality; 
biological resources; cultural resources; floodplains, wetlands and 
coastal zones; geology and soils; hydrology and water quality; 
infrastructure and community services; land use and planning; noise; 
and socioeconomics and environmental justice. The PEIS also identifies 
and analyzes potential cumulative impacts, which are the potential 
incremental impacts on the environment resulting from continued 
administration and operation of the HLP in combination with other past, 
present and reasonably foreseeable future actions from other relevant 
Federal and non-Federal programs.
    The PEIS is atypical in that it addresses an existing program, and 
VA has no specific or immediate need to change its operational 
structure or procedures to address environmental impacts. Furthermore, 
the making of loan guaranties, direct loans and grants do not typically 
result in direct environmental impacts. Environmental impacts, if they 
occur, would be the result of private citizen actions (e.g., 
construction of a house funded by VA-guaranteed loan financing) related 
to a specific property. In this case, the primary environmental impacts 
of concern for VA would be the potential indirect impacts from 
homeowner actions and the potentially significant cumulative impacts of 
small incremental actions on local and regional resources.

Signing Authority

    Denis McDonough, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, approved this 
document on March 29, 2021, and authorized the undersigned to sign and 
submit the document to the Office of the Federal Register for 
publication electronically as an official document of the Department of 
Veterans Affairs.

Luvenia Potts,
Regulation Development Coordinator, Office of Regulation Policy & 
Management, Office of the Secretary, Department of Veterans Affairs.
[FR Doc. 2021-15014 Filed 7-15-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8320-01-P