Reading Room Document
Applicability of the Davis-Bacon Act to the Veterans Administration's Lease of Medical Facilities
The Attorney General has authority to review legal determinations made by the Secretary of Labor under the Davis-Bacon Act. A lease of a privately owned facility is not a "contract for construction of a public building" within the meaning of the Davis-Bacon Act. The mere fact that a lessor undertakes construction in order to fulfill its obligations is insufficient to convert a lease into such a contract. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at www.justice.gov/file/24071/download.
The OLC's Opinions
Opinions published by the OLC, including those released in response to our FOIA lawsuit