Economic Opportunity Subcommittee Chairman Van Orden Leads on Affordability, Cutting Red Tape in VA Home Loan Program for Veterans and their Families

Economic Opportunity Subcommittee Chairman Van Orden Leads on Affordability, Cutting Red Tape in VA Home Loan Program for Veterans and their Families

Today, Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.), the Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity, delivered the following opening remarks, as prepared, at the start the subcommittee's oversight hearing to examine ways to modernize the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Home Loan program. The VA Home Loan program currently serves 3.7 million veterans - and the Committee continues to work with the Trump administration to find ways to expand affordability and reduce unnecessary homebuying costs to ensure housing is affordable for today and tomorrow's veterans, servicemembers, and their families. Since 1944, this important VA benefit has unleashed homeownership and economic opportunity for millions of veterans and their families. Last year, President Trump signed Economic Opportunity Chairman Rep. Van Orden's bill, H.R. 1815, the VA Home Loan Program Reform Act into law which modernizes the VA Home Loan program by providing veterans at-risk of foreclosure with a safety net to get back on track with their mortgage payments.

Good afternoon.

The Subcommittee will come to order.

I want to thank everyone for being here today to discuss affordability for our men and women who have served and ways we can improve and modernize the VA Home Loan Program.

The purpose of this VA benefit is to assist veterans and servicemembers with living the American Dream by purchasing their first home.

As always, I appreciate the nonpartisan approach this subcommittee takes when working on this issue.

In Fiscal Year 2025, an estimated 528,340 veterans, servicemembers, and their families used the VA home loan program, with 61% of VA guaranteed loans being used for initial purchase.

V.A. has guaranteed over 29 million loans in excess of 4 trillion dollars since the 1940s.

Last fiscal year was yet another record year, with V.A.'s loan volume increasing 19% from 2024.

These impressive numbers represent millions of veterans, servicemembers, and their families who may not have otherwise achieved the American dream of owning a home.

I am also a proud user of the VA home loan program and personally know the benefits and purpose that this program can bring to veterans' and their families. This is a benefit that we must protect to ensure it unleashes economic opportunity for today and tomorrow's veterans.

Last year, I championed H.R. 1815, the VA Home Loan Program Reform Act, that was signed into law by President Trump.

I am looking forward to full implementation of this partial claims program that will put the V.A. home loan program on par with other federal home loans in terms of options to mitigate foreclosure.

This law helps fulfill a promise to those who protected us with their service and continue to do so today by providing a safety net to maintain homeownership.

I am very proud of our legislation and grateful to President Trump for signing it into law.

I know that VA is working with industry to implement this law and encourage them to work closely with industry so the good work we have done with this law is not wasted in bureaucratic red tape.

The enactment and implementation of this law is important, but the work is not done.

I am working on a piece of legislation that would streamline the VA home loan program by requiring VA to review and update their outdated minimum property requirements and barriers to entry with the appraisal process.

We must find ways to eliminate the unnecessary administrative costs of the VA home loan and better align it with other federal housing programs so that it remains the best benefit for our veterans in today's volatile housing market.

It is both a priority of mine, Chairman Bost, our Republican conference, and President Trump to ensure that housing is affordable for all, especially veterans.

Today we will be hearing from industry experts about how to do just that.

I was happy to see that V.A. is taking a taking a closer look and updating some of their minimum property requirements, but there is more work that needs to be done to streamline the home loan program and remove unnecessary bureaucracy getting in the way of veteran homeownership.

I want today's discussion to be meaningful, with the end goal of keeping housing affordable for veterans, servicemembers, and their families.

With that, I now yield to the Ranking Member for his opening remarks.

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