Montgomery Gi Bill Selected Reserves Tuition Fairness Act of 2025

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise to express my support for H.R. 983, the Montgomery GI Bill Selected Reserves Tuition Fairness Act of 2025.

This bill mandates the Department of Veterans Affairs to deny courses that do not charge in-State tuition rates to veterans using certain educational assistance under title 10. The VA already has the authority to disapprove courses at higher education institutions that do not offer in-State tuition rates for other GI Bill beneficiaries.

Mandating in-State tuition rates is good policy. It ensures that only schools who prioritize quality education at a fair price participate in the programs. It preserves the GI Bill benefits for student veterans, and it makes the entire GI Bill program more solvent and sustainable so that the GI Bill stays available for veterans for generations into the future.

Mr. Speaker, it is also crucial to ensure that selected reservists receive the same benefits as their Active-Duty counterparts by ensuring that in-State tuition is granted regardless of their residency.

This bill will expand educational opportunities by providing them with more affordable education options. Their dedication to serving our country deserves nothing less.

We passed this bill last Congress, but, unfortunately, the Senate did not consider it in time. I hope we finish this work in this Congress, and I urge my colleagues to support it.

Mr. Speaker, while the House debates various veterans-related legislation today, none are more urgent than the legislation I am introducing to stop thousands of veterans from losing their homes.

Last Thursday, Secretary Doug Collins and President Trump announced the abrupt termination of the Veterans Affairs Servicing Purchase program, known as VASP.

This program was designed to prevent foreclosures for veterans with VA home loans who had exhausted every other option. With no notice, no replacement, and no plan, the Trump administration decided that these veterans are on their own.

The decision came down just hours after the new Trump tariffs sent our economy reeling, plunging the stock market, increasing job insecurity, and deepening financial strain on working families, including veterans.

It is hard to imagine a starker representation of their values. At the very moment veterans are needing stability, the administration chose to take it away. They did it while Republicans in Congress are pushing massive tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.

The Republicans are pushing for massive tax cuts for billionaires while forcing veterans into foreclosures. Veterans who served this Nation are now calling our offices, panicked and unsure if they will lose their homes. They don't know what is next, and the truth is neither does VA.

Secretary Collins has provided no answers and no alternatives to VASP. Ending this critical support without a clear plan is not just reckless, but it is cruel. That is why I am introducing the Foreclosure Assistance Immediately Reinstated, or FAIR Act, to reinstate the VASP program and make it clear that VA's job is to help veterans stay in their homes, not push them into homelessness.

The VA Home Loan Program has been a pillar of the American middle class since the original GI Bill. It helped returning World War II veterans achieve economic security through homeownership. Yet, today's veterans, facing high costs, low wages, and an unstable economy, need that same promise fulfilled.

Let me be very clear. This is not a handout. These are earned benefits. Veterans stepped up to defend our country, our Nation, and they deserve more than empty slogans and broken promises in return.

VA had the tools, and has the responsibility, to intervene when veterans faced foreclosure. VASP was working. It had already helped over 15,000 veterans keep their homes with tens of thousands more eligible.

Ending it based on the false narrative that veterans would game the system is an insult to their service and sacrifices. This decision abandons our values. It punishes the very people who kept their promise to America.

Mr. Speaker, it is our turn to keep our promise to them. I urge my colleagues to support the FAIR Act and send a clear message: We don't let veterans fall through the cracks. Not on our watch.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I ask all of my colleagues to join me in passing H.R. 983, the Montgomery GI Bill Selected Reserves Tuition Fairness Act, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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