Ranking Member Takano Denounces Trump and VAs Decision to End Program to Help Veterans Avoid Foreclosure

WASHINGTON— Today, House Veterans' Affairs Committee Ranking Member Mark Takano issued the following statement in response to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Doug Collins’s announcement that VA plans to end the Veterans Affairs Servicing Purchase (VASP) program. The VASP program was designed to assist veterans and active-duty servicemembers with VA-guaranteed home loans facing foreclosure.

“Secretary Collins and Chairman Bost have repeatedly assured the public that no veterans’ benefits would be cut in the Administration’s ‘downsizing’ efforts. Last night’s decision by VA to remove critical foreclosure assistance that prevents veterans from losing their homes proves that promise was false. Yet another critical VA program has been destroyed by Trump and DOGE.  

After increasing unemployment and tanking the stock market, President Trump has chosen to put the 15,000 veterans using the VASP program at financial risk and end a program that could help nearly 80,000 veterans who are in danger of foreclosure. Veterans and their families rely on the VASP program to avoid housing insecurity and homelessness. Now, Trump and Collins have inexplicably chosen to plunge veterans into further economic crisis.

The VASP program provided relief to veterans in every state who were on the brink of homelessness. The alternative Republicans tout—a so-called ‘partial claim program’— doesn’t exist yet, and even if it did, it wouldn’t help the veterans who are in trouble right now. Ending VASP without a real, functioning alternative in place is reckless and dangerous.

I am outraged by the glee with which Chairman Bost and Subcommittee Chair Van Orden celebrate the end of VASP. I join the veteran community in calling for VASP’s immediate reinstatement. Veterans losing their homes is nothing to celebrate,” said Ranking Member Takano.

###

• Print
• Email
• Tweet