Servicemember Residence Protection Act

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise to express my support for H.R. 2334, the Servicemember Residence Protection Act, as amended. However, I still have many concerns that the bill, while well-intentioned, does not live up to the promises made by some supporters.

I appreciate the work of the majority to improve this bill during our markup. All of us want to ensure that servicemembers do not return home from serving their country to find trespassers or squatters living in their homes. We also want to ensure that servicemembers who are confronted with this situation have the tools and resources to seek legal relief.

However, I want to be clear that neither the original bill nor the amended text that we are considering today will eliminate the possibility that a servicemember will need to seek judicial or other legal relief to evict a trespasser.

The ability of Congress to legislate a solution to that particular issue is legally difficult. The text of H.R. 2334, based on my amendment in committee, was drafted so as to avoid creating confusion where courts have already ruled in Servicemembers Civil Relief Act cases involving adverse possession by codifying existing legal interpretations of SCRA tolling provisions.

What that means is that many State courts across the country have already found that the SCRA applied to adverse possession and that the period of time while the servicemember was away from their property did not count toward adverse possession. The amended bill simply makes this existing legal interpretation law.

Since acquiring title to property through adverse possession is a long and involved process, in practice, this legislation would likely apply to servicemembers in rare circumstances, such as when an adverse possessor was able to satisfy all the elements of adverse possession, including possession for the lengthy statutory period, which is likely longer than the time that most servicemembers are stationed away from home.

Mr. Speaker, the other type of trespassing case that a servicemember may encounter is a holdover tenant, such as may happen if a servicemember rents out their property while they are away from home.

Now, many of the stories presented to the committee to support this bill were of that type of trespass. A servicemember invited someone to stay at their property while they were gone and then the tenant did not want to leave.

It is important to follow good practices when becoming a landlord, such as using a written legal lease agreement, and this legislation does provide instruction for the Department of Veterans Affairs to work with the Department of Justice to provide resources on landlord-tenant practices and securing vacant property.

However, nothing in this bill removes the requirement that someone seeking an eviction will need to follow a legal process to do so, which may include seeking assistance from law enforcement or going to local courts. Evicting someone from property requires due process. In addition, the SCRA is not self-enforcing. A servicemember must seek to enforce all of its protections through a legal process.

Ultimately, servicemembers will need to seek legal assistance to deal with trespassing cases. We owe it to servicemembers to provide them with the information and resources to navigate that process.

This legislation, unfortunately, does not bolster access to legal assistance, but I hope the sponsors of this legislation will join us on those efforts in the future.

I will be supporting this legislation today, as it does make some improvements for those servicemembers who find themselves in the rare occurrence of adverse possession. I hope we can do more in the future, but I don't want to give the servicemembers the false impression that this bill will immediately solve the trespassing issues presented to the committee.

Mr. Speaker, I ask all my colleagues to join me in passing H.R. 2334, the Servicemember Residence Protection Act, as amended, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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