House Opposes VA Land Sale at 2 L.A. Sites

The House voted unanimously Wednesday to block the sale of 112 acres of Veterans Administration land at two Los Angeles locations.

The Reagan Administration has pushed the sale of 80 acres at the VA’s 442-acre hospital facility adjoining Westwood and 32 acres at its 164-acre property in Sepulveda. The proposed sale is part of a plan to reduce the federal deficit by selling what the Administration considers excess government land.

But opponents of the sale say that the savings are not worth the sale’s negative impact on the public. They say the city needs “green space” such as the youth baseball fields on the VA land in Sepulveda. And they say that, as more veterans reach retirement age, the land might be needed to care for them.

“We are not willing to sacrifice our veterans’ needs and the small amount of open space left in our community in the name of deficit reduction,” Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Los Angeles) said through a spokesman.

The measure to block the sale had been attached to a veterans’ health care bill, which sailed through the House on a 418-0 vote.

In the Senate, backers were unable to attach a similar rider onto that chamber’s version of the health care bill, which awaits full Senate action. Separate legislation sponsored by Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) has stalled, and aides say efforts now are focusing on retaining blockage of the sale in the final health care bill that is expected to emerge from a House-Senate conference this fall.

Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.) will ask GOP conferees to block the sale, a Wilson spokeswoman said, and he has lobbied the White House and Sen. Frank H. Murkowski (R-Alaska), chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee and a chief opponent of the attempt to block the sale.