The House Committee on Veterans Affairs met recently to discuss the topic of regulation and to pick a bone with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. “It is the fundamental duty of this committee,” Chairman Mike Bost (R-IL) said in December 2024, “to make sure that no matter who is in the White House, the administration that’s in charge is properly carrying out the laws to serve veterans in a way that Congress intended.”

He and other committee Republicans have a few grievances with the VA, one of which is its launch of the Veterans Affairs Servicing Purchase program last spring. The agency issued a new policy that authorizes it to modify the mortgages of at least 60,000 veterans who are in arrears. Instead of paying 7% or 8% interest on the money they borrowed from private banks, their new rate will be 2.5%. Interest rates for the average U.S. borrower with good credit were more than 6% at the time of writing.