Implementing Regulation for National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA): Environmental Effects of the Department of Veterans Affairs Actions

What it does

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is issuing this interim final rule to amend its agency procedures for implementing the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Since VA last updated its NEPA regulations in 1989, Congress amended NEPA through the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025, the Council on Environmental Quality rescinded its NEPA regulations, and substantial changes have occurred in VA's delivery of care and benefits to veterans. The revisions to VA's NEPA regulations improve the efficiency and quality of VA's NEPA process and align the NEPA process with decision-making across VA by more clearly focusing on the planning stages of VA actions, improving consistency in NEPA implementation throughout VA, updating the VA categorical exclusion list to reflect current VA activities, and complying with NEPA, as revised.

The Veterans Affairs Department's summary, as published in the Federal Register.

What changed in the regulation

1 part of Title 38 of the Code of Federal Regulations:

38 CFR 26

Wording on eCFR: the day before it took effect and from the day it took effect (first part listed).

Compared with

The Veterans Affairs Department has published 9 final rules in 2026 so far, compared with 15 in all of 2025.

Counted by the Tribune from Federal Register records since Jan. 1, 2025.

Before this

No earlier Federal Register document under regulation identifier 2900-AS33 since Jan. 1, 2025.

What happens next and when

This interim final rule is effective June 15, 2026. Comments must be received by July 15, 2026.

The agency's dates, word for word.

Check it yourself

• The document in the Federal Register
• Docket VA-2026-VACO-0298 on Regulations.gov
• Title 38 on eCFR

The record as published

Source: the Federal Register (public domain). The document in the Federal Register