FAIR Veterans Act of 2025
The FAIR Veterans Act of 2025, introduced as H.R. 2963, expresses the sense of Congress that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) should use its existing authority to prevent foreclosures on VA-guaranteed homes whenever possible. Specifically, the bill would clarify and enhance the VA’s ability to intervene in distressed mortgages by adopting a program under which the VA may pay a lender the unpaid balance plus accrued interest and receive the loan assignment, rather than allowing foreclosure as the first or only option. The overall goal is to keep veterans in their homes and make foreclosure a last resort. The act is titled to emphasize foreclosure prevention and to reinstatement of home ownership for veterans. In short, the bill seeks to codify and clarify that the VA can, under a formal program, step in to buy or otherwise take control of a VA-guaranteed loan to prevent foreclosure, paying the lender and obtaining the loan, instead of allowing the foreclosure process to proceed.
Key Points
- 1Purpose and focus: Foreclosures on VA-guaranteed homes should be a last resort; Congress urges the VA to use its authorities to help as many veterans as possible keep their homes.
- 2Core mechanism: The bill would amend 38 U.S.C. 3732(a)(2) to establish a program under which the Secretary may pay the loan holder the unpaid balance plus accrued interest and receive an assignment of the loan and its security.
- 3Program participation: The Secretary would run a program under which this loan-purchase/assumption arrangement can occur, with conditions for lender participation and/or eligibility to be defined (the text indicates there are criteria before participation, though those specifics are not fully shown in the excerpt).
- 4Legal/operational effect: This creates a framework for the VA to intervene directly in distressed mortgages, potentially preventing foreclosures by transferring ownership of the loan to the VA in exchange for payment to the lender.
- 5Legislative nature: The act is a sense-of-Congress resolution (non-binding) that also proposes a statutory amendment to clarify and authorize the VA’s servicing/purchasing authorities; it does not itself authorize funding—any implementation would require appropriate appropriations.