On April 3, House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs (VA) Chairman Mike Bost (R-Ill.), and Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity Chairman Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.), released a joint statement after VA Secretary Doug Collins announced the agency will phase out the Veterans Affairs Servicing Purchase (VASP) program.

VASP was released in April last year, halting foreclosures for about 40,000 servicemembers covered by the VA while the agency rolled out a rescue plan it estimates helped place more than 17,000 veterans and their families into new, low-interest-rate, affordable mortgages.

Bost and Van Orden contended in their statement the VASP program 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,” Van Orden said in the statement. “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 (April 3), 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,” Van Orden went on to say. “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.”

Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) President and CEO Bob Broeksmit, who praised the VA for the VASP initiative a year ago, released a statement emphasizing the importance of supporting servicemembers facing financial hardship.

“Any characterization of VASP as a ‘lender bailout’ is patently false and entirely inappropriate, given that the mortgage industry voluntarily honored a foreclosure moratorium for months until the VA was able to provide VASP as the only available solution,” he said. “The work must start immediately to strengthen the VA’s loss mitigation toolkit, and that includes implementing a permanent partial claim option, a foreclosure avoidance tool that is widely used in every other government loan program.”