[WASHINGTON, DC] – Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Ranking Member Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) today joined Chairman Jerry Moran (R-KS), House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Mike Bost (R-IL), and Ranking Member Mark Takano (D-CA) to applaud Senate passage of bipartisan, bicameral legislation to ensure veterans and servicemembers using Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) home loans can keep their homes.

“This bipartisan and bicameral legislation will assist veterans who are facing financial hardships and provide VA with a tool to better help veterans stay in their homes and avoid foreclosure. The VA Home Loan Program provides one of the best benefits VA has to offer, and has helped veterans and their families build home equity since its inception in 1944. Today, we are empowering VA to establish a partial claim program as an option of last-resort, which will preserve veteran homeownership and save taxpayer dollars by avoiding preventable foreclosures. This legislation will also allow VA to provide critical funding to grantees offering transitional housing to homeless veterans through the Grant and Per Diem program,” said the Senate and House Veterans’ Affairs Committee leaders.

The Committee leaders continued, “We appreciate the efforts of mortgage servicers and holders for their work during the Congressional process and their commitment to providing VA loan services to veterans during these challenging times. We encourage the VA and mortgage servicers to continue their collaboration as this program is implemented, ensuring that they help mitigate any impact on veterans facing financial hardship while VA takes the necessary steps to establish the new partial claims program properly. We commit to working together to pass into law additional measures to build upon this legislation to offer veterans similar foreclosure mitigation measures available to other federally backed mortgage programs. No veteran should fall through the cracks or risk losing their home while a last-resort program is being implemented.”

The VA Home Loan Program Reform Act now heads to the President’s desk to be signed into law, and will establish a partial claim program to help veterans using the VA home loan and experiencing severe financial hardship avoid foreclosure and stay in their homes. This program would replace VA’s previous program, the Veterans Affairs Serving Purchase (VASP) Program, which was the Department’s only program of last-resort for veterans facing immediate foreclosure. This legislation will ensure these veterans have a viable solution to avoid defaulting on their loans, bring their mortgages current, and avoid foreclosure by establishing a replacement partial claims program.