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Cosponsor The Selected Reserve Veteran Home Loan Equity Act! Provide Permanent Authority for VA Home Loans at Fair Interest Rates for Selected Reserve March 11, 2003 Dear Colleague: Today there are approximately 180,000 Guard and Reserve members currently serving on active-duty to protect and defend our country. The Guard and Reserve are clearly indispensable components of our “total force” military. Accordingly, our Nation has taken many actions to recognize the contributions of the Reserves and to remove barriers to the full integration of the Reserves into the Total Force. Under current law, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) home loan program for the Selected Reserve is scheduled to expire on September 30, 2009. The Selected Reserve Veteran Home Loan Equity Act would provide permanent authority for a VA Selected Reserve Home Loan program. In addition, this measure would provide that any funding fee charged to members of the Selected Reserve would be the same rate as for all other borrowers. Currently reservists, who have a much lower foreclosure rate than other borrowers, pay an additional 0.75 percent funding fee for VA home loans in most categories. Our bill provides the same funding fee rate for all borrowers. In order to pay for the bill under paygo rules, the bill provides for a small increase in the funding fee (0.3% for the first eight years and 0.85% for the ninth and tenth year) for borrowers who are obtaining a subsequent home loan with no money down. These increases would amount to a few dollars per year when amortized over the life of the loan. They would only apply to borrowers who had previously obtained a VA home loan. In today’s world, some members of the Selected Reserve have been called up on active duty for multiple time periods. They are virtually indistinguishable from their active duty counterparts in Afghanistan or in South West Asia, yet they face the indignity of being the only group singled out for a higher funding fee. Less than 2% of VA home loans active during fiscal year 2001 were made to reservists. It is time to put an end to this discrimination. If you would like to be an original cosponsor of the Selected Reserve Home Loan Equity Act, please contact Leah Booth, or Mary Ellen Mc Carthy, at 5-9756 by 11:00 A.M., Thursday, March 13, 2003. Sincerely,
LANE
EVANS MICHAEL H.
MICHAUD
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