How to Get VA Construction Contracts and Who Decides

To get VA construction contracts, start by working out which part of VA buys the job you want. VA's Office of Construction and Facilities Management (CFM) owns VA construction projects whose construction cost is above $20 million (VA CFM). Smaller work is bought closer to the medical center that needs it.

After that, the order is simple. Check whether Veterans First set-asides apply to your firm. Find the opportunity through CFM's resources or VA's small business office. Then reach the people who actually decide on the work, or the primes who win the large jobs, before the solicitation lands on everyone's desk.

Most contractors treat "the VA" as one customer. It is several buyers with different rules, budgets and contact lists, and a generic message aimed at all of them reaches none of the right people.

Choosing which part of VA to sell into is a market decision before it is a copywriting decision, and I work through it in the same order I use for picking a market before any copy.

How does VA buy construction work?

VA splits construction by size.

Major construction. CFM's contracting staff typically solicit general construction contractors and architect-engineers (A/Es) for work usually valued between $30 million and $100 million (CFM contracting). The same office runs contracting for major construction, design work by A/E firms and lease support.

Everything below the $20 million line. This work belongs to a different buyer. The projects are smaller and tied to one building that is already running: a renovation, a system upgrade, a repair that cannot wait for a national program. The people who feel the problem and the people who write the scope sit at or near the facility.

The rule stack is the same for both, in two layers.

1. FAR Part 36 sets the policies and procedures that apply specifically to federal construction and A/E contracting (FAR Part 36). Every federal agency starts here.
2. VAAR Part 836 is what VA adds on top: its own solicitation rules, estimate handling and contract clauses (VAAR Part 836).

When you read a VA construction solicitation, keep both open. The bid section below covers the parts that change what you see in the documents.

Who decides on construction at a VA medical center?

A facility name is not a buyer. A contractor needs four separate entries on the map, and each one has different people behind it.

Pay most attention to the third column, because it shifts from job to job. The person behind a roof replacement at one hospital is rarely the person behind a new clinic wing in another state.

So I never build a list from titles that merely sound senior. Before any list exists, I go back to the client's past projects and identify the person who made the call on each one. Then I target those exact titles for that niche, never a vague "manager".

For a VA contractor, that means pulling every healthcare or government job you have done and writing three things next to each: who wrote the scope, who chose you, and who paid. If the answer was the estimator at a prime, that is your first audience. If it was a facilities manager, start there.

Who to ask first on a live opportunity follows from the size. On a CFM-scale job, it is the prime's preconstruction team, because they build the bid and pick the subs. On local work, it is the facilities side, to understand the need, while every question about the procurement itself goes to the contracting office. Once a notice is published, stop contacting facilities staff about that job and use only the channels the notice names.

What changes if the job is major construction or small work?

The $20 million line changes three things: where the money is planned, how early you can see the project, and who you should be talking to.

Major projects show up in VA's budget long before a solicitation exists. VA's Office of Budget lists a total FY 2027 request of $488.2 billion, and the budget includes a separate volume called "Construction and Long Range Capital Plan" (VA Office of Budget). The same page puts the budget submission to Congress on the first Monday in February, and the fiscal year starts in October, when apportionments and funding allocations are issued.

If you want to be on a team for a large project, read the capital plan volume first, note the sites and project types that fit your work, and start talking to the primes likely to bid. Starting before the notice is public gives you time to join a team.

Size also changes the labor terms. FAR requires agencies to use a project labor agreement on federal construction projects estimated to cost $35 million or more to build, unless an exception applies (FAR Part 36).

Here is the decision rule I would give a contractor deciding where to aim:

Projects between $20 million and $30 million still belong to CFM, just below its typical range, so a firm working at that size follows the first row.

Pick one row, and build your list and your proof for that row alone.

Can SDVOSB and VOSB firms get set-asides for VA construction?

Yes, under VA's own program. Subpart 819.70 of the VA acquisition rules sets out the Veterans First Contracting Program (VAAR 819.70). It directs contracting officers to limit competition to eligible firms owned by service-disabled veterans (SDVOSBs) or by veterans (VOSBs). Section 819.7005 sets the order of priority: SDVOSBs first, then VOSBs, then other small business preferences.

The conditions are specific:

• Verification. To count as eligible, a firm has to be listed as a verified SDVOSB or VOSB on VA's Vendor Information Pages (VIP).
• SDVOSB set-aside. The contracting officer needs a reasonable expectation of at least two verified SDVOSBs listed in VIP, at a fair and reasonable price.
• VOSB set-aside. The same two-offer and fair-price test applies to VIP-listed VOSBs.
• Sole source. A narrow option. An SDVOSB award can go sole source when the anticipated award price will not exceed $5 million and the firm is VIP-listed and responsible.

The wider federal rule points the same way. Above the simplified acquisition threshold, FAR tells the contracting officer to first consider the socioeconomic programs, including 8(a), HUBZone, SDVOSB and WOSB, before a general small business set-aside (FAR Part 19). Your firm also has to represent in good faith that it fits the size limit tied to the solicitation's NAICS code, and an appeal of that code has to be filed within 10 calendar days of the solicitation or the amendment that changed it.

The certification behind SDVOSB status comes from SBA: under FAR, SDVOSB status is determined by SBA (FAR Part 19), and VA's small business office points veteran-owned firms to SBA's Veteran Small Business Certification (VetCert) to get it, with the contact vetcert@sba.gov (VA OSDBU).

If you are not veteran-owned, Veterans First is not your route, and nothing here should suggest otherwise. Your paths are open competitions where the set-aside conditions are not met, or work as a subcontractor or supplier. The subpart includes a section on limitations on subcontracting compliance, so read it before you plan a large share of a set-aside job. None of this is legal advice.

How do FAR Part 36 and VAAR Part 836 shape the bid?

Six rules change what a bidder actually sees in a VA construction package.

The method. FAR requires sealed bidding for a construction contract when 6.401(a)'s conditions are met. A/E services are always bought by negotiation. For public-building design and construction, two-phase design-build selection is used when appropriate (FAR Part 36).

The size disclosure. Federal construction notices state a project's magnitude as a price range, with FAR's bands running from less than $25,000 to more than $10 million. VA uses its own finer bands, such as between $1 million and $2 million, up to more than $250 million (VAAR Part 836). Read the band before the scope. It tells you in seconds whether the job fits the row you picked in the table above.

The government estimate. VA marks its independent government estimate "For Official Use Only (FOUO)" and files a sealed copy with the bids. On sealed bids, the contracting officer or bid custodian may not release the basis of that estimate at any time. Do not waste a call asking for it.

VA-specific clauses. The VAAR clause "Performance of Work by the Contractor", on how much of the work the contractor must perform itself, goes into construction contracts that carry the FAR clause of the same name, except contracts awarded under the Veterans First subpart. The VAAR clause "Contractor Production Report" goes into larger construction contracts above the simplified acquisition threshold. Price both into your management cost.

Wage determinations. CFM's contracting page says federal construction contracts over $2,000 must carry a Davis-Bacon wage determination, the list of prevailing wage and fringe rates for each trade in the area (CFM contracting). You will find those wage rates on the CFM site next to the solicitation files.

A/E is a separate track. Design firms submit qualifications on the SF 330, linked from CFM's contracting page. For A/E design services estimated at $50,000 or more, VA uses VA Form 6298 for the fee proposal. Keep design and construction pursuits apart in your pipeline, because the buyer, the method and the documents differ.

Where do contractors actually find VA opportunities?

No single page shows everything. Federal solicitations above $25,000 are posted at the government's single point of entry, SAM.gov (FAR 2.101), and your firm generally has to be registered in SAM when it submits a bid (FAR 4.1102). Around that, use three VA entry points, each for a different job.

1. CFM, for major work. The contracting page links to the VA Forecast of Contracting Opportunities, and the CFM site holds solicitation documents, wage rate determinations and the Technical Information Library of design and construction criteria. Read those criteria before you bid. They tell you what VA expects in a healthcare building.
2. OSDBU, for the small business path. VA's small business office (OSDBU) links to Doing Business with VA, the VA contracting roadmap, a list of upcoming procurements, and the VA Small Business Liaisons. For opportunities in your own area, it tells vendors to contact the local liaison (VA OSDBU).
3. VA Pathfinder, for product suppliers. CFM's site describes it as a place where vendors can submit a product, service or solution for VA review (VA CFM).

Check the forecast every month, ask your local liaison what is coming in your area, and add each matching site to the territory that owns it.

How should a contractor build the outreach list by VA network?

I start every list from who already pays the client: past and current customers first, then companies that resemble them. For a VA contractor, that means the primes you have worked under, the general contractors running healthcare jobs in your region, and the suppliers you keep meeting on the same sites.

Then split the map. VA runs care through regional networks, the Veterans Integrated Service Networks (VISNs), and VA's own VISN page on department.va.gov lists the states each network covers. Those networks make clean sales territories.

When a campaign runs on more than one rep or sender account, I split the territory first, so no two people touch the same leads. Several reps writing to the same short list of chief engineers and estimators will burn your reputation with buyers who talk to each other.

Start close to home. In the campaigns my team runs, I aim at a local audience whenever possible, because buyers reply more readily to someone who works in their own city. For a VA contractor, being local also means you can staff the job, which is the first thing a facilities manager will test.

Give each owner one network and one offer. It is the same discipline as staying with one offer for one audience for a full year. For the mechanics of cleaning the contacts inside each territory, here is what to cut and verify in a lead list.

Choose proof that matches the building. Generic construction claims do nothing for a hospital buyer. Useful proof shows you can deliver inside an occupied healthcare facility or a busy live site: patients on the floor below, infection control, night shifts, systems that cannot go down. Name the hospital job, the constraint and the outcome in the email body itself, so the reader never has to click a link to judge you.

Set the right first goal. In month 1, count conversations started rather than calls booked, because calls grow out of conversations. A VA buyer who answers "send me your occupied-building references" is worth more in month 1 than a calendar slot with someone who has no project.

What should the first 30 days of VA outbound look like?

Here is the first-month checklist, in order.

1. Pick one territory and one row of the decision table. Major-job subcontracting and local prime work need different lists and different proof.
2. Fill the titles from your own past jobs. Use the decision-maker notes from your healthcare and government projects, not a title search in a lead tool.
3. Verify every address. Check every email before sending and keep bounces below 0.5%.
4. Set up the sending domains properly. SPF, DKIM and DMARC are in place before any real volume goes out.
5. Write the first message to one structure (below).
6. Run LinkedIn and email together. One or two messages are rarely enough, so plan a minimum of 5 or 6 touches across both channels. How the two channels fit together is in a follow-up sequence across LinkedIn and email.

The message structure. Four parts, no services menu:

The rule behind the ask: in a first message I sell the conversation, never the full service. A call may cost you nothing, but for a busy estimator it costs time, so the message has to give a reason worth the minutes.

Contractors and product suppliers run the same playbook with different titles. A mechanical subcontractor writes to preconstruction managers about one package. A supplier writes to estimators and project managers about one product, and adds a Pathfinder submission for the VA side.

Judge month one honestly. Calls can arrive in the first 30 days, but deals from those calls may close 4 or more months later, and B2B sales cycles of 6, 9 or 12 months are common. Public construction runs on a budget calendar on top of that. Measure the first month on conversations with the right people in one territory, then widen the map once your proof is landing with them.

If you want help deciding which VA network or prime to focus on first, or just have a question about VA construction work, book a call and I will gladly help.