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Rules Committee advances veterans bills amid dispute over home‑loan fee offsets and VA NICS reporting
Summary
The Rules Committee heard testimony and debated HR6047 (expanded benefits) and HR1041 (limits on VA NICS reporting), with proponents citing veteran need and due‑process concerns and opponents warning that fee offsets and reduced reporting could harm at‑risk veterans; the committee reported a closed rule to the floor.
Chairwoman Fox convened the House Rules Committee on May 24 to consider a package of measures affecting veterans’ benefits and federal museum authorizations. The committee heard testimony from Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman James Bost and Ranking Member Mark Takano and debated two veterans bills that split the panel along party lines.
Chairman Bost testified that HR6047, the "Sherry Briley and Eric Edmonson Veterans Benefits Expansion Act of 2026," would raise special monthly compensation and dependency and indemnity compensation for veterans and survivors, including an additional $10,000 annually for veterans who require round‑the‑clock care. Bost said roughly 7,000 veterans currently qualify for the highest SMC tier and that the bill would also expand VA home‑loan eligibility for National Guard and reservists to 14 days of active duty with a 1 percent fee.
Bost and the bill’s proponents said the plan is paid for under PAYGO rules by modest increases to certain VA home‑loan refinancing fees and by extending existing fee offsets used in prior Congresses, and that veteran service organizations including the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion had signed a letter in support of the legislation.
Ranking Member Takano and other Democrats supported increasing benefits in principle but strongly objected to the proposed offsets. Takano called it "unconscionable" to raise refinancing fees on some veterans to pay for benefit increases for others and warned that the increase would come at a time of rising veteran foreclosures. He urged alternatives such as modest adjustments to other tax provisions rather than charging veterans more to refinance.
On the separate NICS issue, HR1041 (the Veterans Second Amendment Protection Act) would bar the Department of Veterans Affairs from reporting a beneficiary’s personal information to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) solely on the basis of assigning a fiduciary unless a judge or other judicial authority had found the beneficiary to be a danger to self or others. Bost said automatic VA referrals have in many cases carried "the unintended consequence of stripping veterans of constitutional rights without a court finding," and described cases where veterans assigned fiduciaries for financial reasons lost firearm rights.
Opponents, including Takano and Rep. James McGovern, argued that reducing VA reporting could remove a tool used to keep at‑risk veterans and the public safe. McGovern cited veteran suicide statistics and said the bill "dismantles a tool that the VA has used for decades to help keep at‑risk veterans safe." Committee members also debated internal VA appeals, state judicial processes and the scale of veterans affected; sponsors cited figures they said reflected hundreds of thousands of referrals over time and low return rates for restored rights, while opponents disputed those characterizations.
Throughout the markup members pressed for specifics: how much the refinance fee increases veterans would actually pay (sponsors said an $8 monthly increase on refinancing in many cases), how many veterans might face foreclosure absent other interventions (members referenced a claim of roughly 10,000 veteran foreclosures in the past year), and the implementation status of the partial‑claims replacement program the VA has proposed.
Procedurally, the committee voted to report a closed rule for consideration of HR1041 and HR6047 (and the museum bill HR1329) to the House floor after several recorded votes on amendments; multiple Democratic amendments to strike the fee increases or to substitute alternative offsets were defeated on roll calls. Representative Jack moved the rule for the majority and Representative Ledger Fernandez was designated to manage for Democrats.
The committee’s action advances consideration of benefit increases and the NICS reporting change but leaves open contentious questions about who should pay for benefit expansion and how to balance veterans’ access to care against public‑safety reporting mechanisms. The measures now go to the House floor under the terms the Rules Committee approved.
