Press Releases

Today, Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernández and House Veterans' Affairs Committee Ranking Member Mark Takano led a letter of 59 Members of Congress to call on Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Denis R. McDonough to prevent veterans from losing their homes.  

The letter follows a recent NPR article that reported that approximately 6,000 veterans face the foreclosure process and 34,000 are delinquent. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the VA allowed borrowers to request forbearance and created the Partial Claims Payment (PCP) program, which allowed veterans to make up missed payments at the end of their loan term. The end of the PCP program in October 2022 eliminated that option for veterans to seek relief. The VA has since called for a temporary foreclosure moratorium as they work on a solution for those who are impacted. 

In the letter the Members wrote, “We now urge the Administration to swiftly start the Veterans Assistance Servicing Purchase (VASP) program to provide permanent relief. We also ask that you  reinstate the Partial Claims Payment (PCP) program as a standalone program to provide an alternative tool for relief in the interim.” They continued, “Veterans who utilized forbearance during the pandemic should not be unreasonably asked to make a lump sum repayment immediately when they were told they would have the opportunity to repay these amounts at the end of their loans. In the interim, it is also imperative that the VA use its authority to reinstate the PCP so these veterans and their families don’t have to wait for relief or certainty any longer.” They concluded, “Veterans have served our country, and now we must serve them.”

The full text of the letter is available here.

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