THE WASHINGTON POST.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2019EZ14
you-go e xemption to protect veter-
ans’ benefits. It’s time to stop this
zero-sum approach to caring for
those w ho serve our country.
The men and women of our
Armed Forces sacrifice so much t o
safeguard our freedoms. They’re
trained to make tough choices ev-
ery single day, often with lives
hanging in the balance.
As a country, we’ve made a
promise to veterans and military
families. We shouldn’t be falling
short because of budgetary rules
and procedures. We shouldn’t be
hiking home loan fees or raising
TRICARE pharmacy co-pays to
cover another veteran’s benefit.
Congress must fully live up to
that promise and start making
tough choices about funding and
priorities without sacrificing or
eroding veterans’ b enefits.
Our job is to make sure they
know w e’re watching.Ch ris Birk is author of “The Book on VA
Loans: An Essential Guide to
Maximizing Your Home Loan Benefits”
and director of education for Veterans
United Home Loans, the country’s
largest VA lender.some veterans to get VA l oans.
Most veterans and service
members finance the funding fee,
which applies to all VA loans un-
less the borrower receives com-
pensation for a service-connected
disability. These $0 down mort-
gages have been the safest loan on
the market for nearly all of the
past decade, but having to finance
higher fees pushes homeowners
underwater on their mortgages
for longer, making it difficult if n ot
impossible for t hem t o sell in some
cases.
Owing more than your home is
worth can be especially devastat-
ing for active duty military, who
relocate frequently, given the na-
ture o f their service.
Instead of hiding behind pay-
as-you-go rules that require tax
increases or cuts to offset new
spending, lawmakers could stand
up for veterans and military fami-
lies and exempt their benefits en-
tirely.
Congress waived the budget
rule to bail out big banks, make
infrastructure investments, enact
tax cuts and more. It can and
should create a permanent pay-as-home loan benefit over the next
seven years, with most of that
money going to programs that
have nothing to do with housing.
The Congressional Budget Office
projects that the two bills will
produce a combined $160 million
windfall for the government.
They’re also going to make it
more difficult and even riskier forhave earned these benefits. We
should push our elected officials
to boost funding for important
measures such as HR 3504 at ev-
ery turn. But Congress can’t con-
tinue to reduce one veteran’s ben-
efit to pay for a nother.
Extending these fees would
force VA borrowers to pay more
than $750 million to use theirBY CHRIS BIRKWhy is Congress making veter-
ans pay for t heir own hard-earned
benefits?
We’re not asking that question
as a country, a nd i t’s time to start.
President Trump in late June
signed the Blue Water Navy Viet-
nam Veterans Act, opening the
door to disability benefits for
about 90,000 deserving veterans
after years of false starts and faint
hopes. This important win was a
long time in the m aking.
A bipartisan consensus formed
to pay for these critical benefits
with a temporary increase to VA
home loan fees. But a month later,
Congress is right back at i t again.
Now it wants to extend those
higher loan fees for an additional
five years to pay for housing grant
and education benefits for quali-
fied veterans. This new bill, HR
3504, p assed the House in late July
but has yet to be taken up by the
Senate Veterans’ Affairs Commit-
tee.
Whether it’s expanding disabil-
ity benefits or scholarship pro-
grams, veterans and t heir familiesHigher fees will make it harder for veterans to get home loans
Commentary
ASTRID RIECKEN FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
Volunteers meet at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington
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