Press Releases

Today, House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Mike Bost (R-Ill.), and Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity Chairman Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.), released the following joint statement after Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Doug Collins announced that the agency will phase out the Veterans Affairs Servicing Purchase (VASP) program, which was created for political purposes by the Biden-Harris administration to undercut the VA Home Loan program:

“Since 1943, the VA home loan program has helped millions of veterans, and their families, own a home. The Biden-Harris administration wrongfully jeopardized the future of this benefit by allowing billions of dollars to be used towards bailouts for lenders by creating the VASP program,” said Chairman Bost and Economic Opportunity Chairman Van Orden. “We – along with many of our colleagues – had serious concerns about the impact VASP would have on not only the future of VA’s home loan program, but the mortgage lending business as a whole. Today, the Trump administration rightfully put an end to VA’s VASP program. This action underscores House Republicans’ intent to establish a partial claims program at VA to ensure veterans’ can stay in their homes if they’re in financial hardship while still protecting the American taxpayer. This the right move by Secretary Collins and the Trump administration to protect the integrity of the VA home loan program, and today and tomorrow’s veterans will undoubtedly be better off because of it.”

Background:
In February 2024, the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity held an oversight hearing on the future of the VA home loan program and Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Van Orden (R-Wis.), pressed the Biden-Harris administration on their lack of transparency regarding creating the Veterans Affairs Service Purchasing (VASP) Program, which can be viewed here. During the Biden-Harris administration, Chairman Bost and Committee members repeatedly sounded the alarm on the effects that VASP would have on veteran homeowners, taxpayers, and the mortgage industry. Since May 31, 2024, VA has used authorities that have traditionally been limited to less than 100 loans to purchase over $5.4 billion worth of loans. VA has been unable to show the Committee how their decision would benefit the taxpayer and prove that individuals would not take advantage of a 2.5% interest rate. In April, 2024, VA estimated that they would purchase over 60,000 loans for a total of $17.7 billion. Instead of reinstituting the partial claim program for an average loan delinquency of $22,500, VA chose to purchase these loans through the VASP program at an average of $292,000. However, since the implementation of VASP, the average amount of loans purchased has increased to $320,000. House Republicans have raised significant concerns since before the creation of the program, especially when a partial claim program could solve the majority of delinquent loans at a much less expensive clip to the taxpayer.