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Today, House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Mike Bost (R-Ill.), delivered the following opening remarks, as prepared, at the start of the Committee’s final oversight hearing of the 118th Congress on restoring congressional power over the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) following the Supreme Court's recent decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo:

The Committee will come to order.

Throughout this Congress, this Committee has devoted a lot of time to enacting legislation and holding this administration accountable to improve the Biden-Harris administration’s management of V.A.

It is the fundamental duty of this Committee to make sure that no matter who is in the White House, the administration in charge is properly carrying out the laws to serve veterans in the way Congress intended.

For too long, there has been a disconnect between Congress’ intent when making laws and how agencies put the laws into practice through regulations and guidance.

This has been especially true under the Biden-Harris administration.

But earlier this year, the Supreme Court ruled that the status quo wasn’t cutting it.

There is a lot of work that happens behind the scenes to make sure the laws Congress sends to the president’s desk are well developed.

Therefore, there is no excuse for V.A. blatantly ignoring Congress’ will.

One example of V.A. ignoring the will of Congress was V.A.’s decision to transform the character of the V.A. home loan program through VASP.

Specifically, the Biden-Harris administration changed its interpretation of the law that allows the Secretary to, on a limited basis, take over a mortgage at a lower interest rate for a veteran or survivor in need.

V.A.’s new interpretation of the statute allows V.A. to take over mortgages for around 60,000 veterans facing foreclosure at an interest rate of 2.5%, well-below the current market rate.

V.A.’s decision to become a lender for tens of thousands of veterans, who are high-risk borrowers, at the expense of taxpayers, directly undercuts the intent of Congress.

Members on both sides of the aisle on this Committee pushed back on the administration for this move.

Despite this, our letters and concerns were ignored.

V.A. did not concern itself with the intent of Congress when the statute was enacted, only with how far they could take that authority now.

This is just one example of what I view as overreach by V.A. that directly impacts veterans and taxpayers.

All the while undercutting the intent of the law.

V.A.’s pattern of interpreting laws not how Congress intended, but in ways more favorable to V.A., is unacceptable.

The Supreme Court’s recent decision in the Loper case will hopefully restore some of the balance to our system of checks and balances.

The Loper decision provides an opportunity for Congress to assert its rightful position as the creator of laws.

To make sure this happens, Congress needs to provide less discretion to agencies in the law.

Instead, Congress should give agencies concrete direction about its intent.

I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today on how Congress can work to ensure its legislative intent is being effectively communicated and implemented.

With that, I now recognize Ranking Member Takano for his opening comments.