Transcription
Hey, thanks for making it to Veterans' Daily. I'm glad you made it. Wanted to talk about a fee that veterans will have to pay that has been now proposed to be nearly three times the amount. This is something that it's important for us to pay attention to because guess what? Too many times has veterans and survivors and spouses and everybody else been left in the dark until it things are already implemented. It's about time we start seeing what's happening as it's unfolding so we can make our voices heard. If you want to write a letter to your congressional member, you should do so. If you want to reach out by phone, you should do so. If you want to do any of that type of stuff, in fact, Claim Raven has a congressional letter writing tool which makes it very easy for you to get your point across and I encourage you to use it. I'll put it in the description and in the comments.
Now, this headline is no fun. So, VA home loan refinancing fee would nearly triple. And we're going to dive into it here and talking about refinancing, if you are in the mode of looking to refinance your home and potentially you have a opportunity to save money on your interest rate, you should you should do that, right? Save money with a lower payment. So, reach out to David Piatek. He is solid. I've had him on the channel multiple times. In fact, we just did a live. David Piatek, his channel is VA Housing Education. Check him out. I highly highly suggest at least running situations past him. He'll shoot straight with you and let you know if it's something that makes sense or not. And really, look, doing it before something like this gets implemented would be a great idea, too. So, let's jump into it here. Hit the thumbs up, subscribe, all that good stuff. I really appreciate it.
So, this just recently came out here at the middle of June 2026. and to share it with you now. So, a plan to nearly triple a VA home loan refinance fee in order to cover higher benefits for the nation's most severely injured veterans is part of a nearly 600-page veteran benefits bill advancing in Congress. Now, let's put this in order so you can understand. This stuff might sound familiar. It is the Sherri Bilrey and Eric Edmonson Veterans uh Benefits Expansion Act. That specific act has been added into the Take Care of America's Veterans Act. There's 60-plus different bills in there uh or at least uh portions of them. And um it includes that one. It includes the Major Richard Star Act and others. Uh but specifically, this tripling of the fee is for interest rate refi- uh interest rate reduction refinance loans, the Earl loan through VA. And um this is part of the Sherri Bilrey and Eric Edmonson Benefits Expansion Act. And and and like I said, inside the Take Care of America's Veterans Act, there's 60-plus bills. Uh this one specifically would increase catastrophically injured veterans. It's a great bill, right? It's a great bill because it's addressing a real need. Those that are catastrophically injured would receive a $10,000 per year increase. That's $833 per month. Big deal. It helps out a lot. In addition, it also gives a small boost to dependency indemnity compensation, which is also a need of an increase. These are great things. However, however, they are placing the cost of this bill squarely on the back of veterans. Whether it's a just a a non-rated veteran, a disabled veteran, even a catastrophically injured veteran who refinances with an Earl interest rate reduction refinance loan is going to now be charged almost triple. So, if before it was going to be 4,000, well, guess what? Now it's going to be $12,000. So, again, the bill is the Sherry Brily and Eric Edmonson Veterans Benefits Expansion Act that's included into the Take Care of America's Veterans Act would nearly triple that VA home loan refinancing fee in order to boost benefits for our nation's most severely injured veterans, including those with limb loss and major TBIs.
Now, for those that don't know, it's uh it is named for Sherry Brily. She is the widow of an Army Black Hawk pilot uh killed in the 1993 Somalia um craziness. And for Eric Edmonson, a former Army sergeant who suffered shrapnel wounds, a heart attack, and brain injury after his Humvee struck a roadside bomb in 2005. So, uh Sherry Brily is on the dependency indemnity compensation side, while um Eric Edmonson is on the catastrophically injured side, representing both pieces of this legislation, which again, I I agree with the legislation. Now, the question really now is should if it's included into the Take Care of America's Veterans Act, should the future cost savings from the VA's, essentially, the VA's proposed changes to tinnitus and sleep apnea, should those cost savings be able to cover this as well? That would be a great question.
Now, look, if If not reaching out to your congressional member, posing questions, showing support, showing opposition, making your voice heard, well, guess what? You don't exist. And it doesn't matter to your congressional members constituency. Now, imagine the other way. Imagine if there was, oh, let's say 300 veterans and another 300 of spouses and dependents out there writing, calling, right? If we had a bunch of people reaching out, believe me, your congressional member's office has the same 12 people coming talking about the same 12 things that they always talk about. It's about time we step up and start talking. It does two things. Even if you don't think that it's going to change the direction of whatever you're talking to them about, piece of legislation, what it does do is it does show that we, as a constituency, are paying attention. And that, my friends, is worth its weight in gold.
Moving on here. Uh for a Here's an example. For a $325,000 uh home loan, the Earl flat funding fee at a half a percent, which it is currently, is $1,625. By contrast, if it jumps to the proposed amount of 1.42% funding fee using that same Earl, uh it would equate to $4,600 uh and $15. So, again, that's on a $325,000 loan. Imagine if that loan was, well, let's say $8,000 or $800,000, right? Um pretty much anywhere in California, you're looking around that. Uh anywhere in any metropolitan city, uh you're looking about that. It's just insane the amount that these things are. And when you're trying to save money as a veteran um having an enormous fee attached in there is not helping you.
So, let's move on. Navy veteran James Neil uh Nelson of Michigan said he has been considering taking out a second mortgage with with an Earl to lower his monthly home loan payments. So, not a second mortgage, but a refinance. Using a loan again, using his Earl to refinance his existing loan. So, with this fee change in the works, I've been thinking about trying to refinance sooner, said Nelson, a Vietnam era veteran who served abroad uh aboard submarines. Oh, man, a submariner. Oof. That's a rough gig. Now, here's the idea. If you If If you're thinking about refinancing today, you better be Johnny or Janie on the spot. You start having those discussions now. Reach out again to David Piatek. Get on his uh radar so he can help you out when the time comes. Nelson is a 72-year-old homeowner uh said he does not oppose the proposed fee change if the dollars go to help disabled veterans. That is a very gracious uh move. I don't have a problem with the fees going up as long as it's not for administrative nonsense, Nelson said. Increasing benefits for the most disabled veterans is good use of the money.
The bill also increases benefits by 1 and 1/2% over 2 years for widowed spouses and other eligible relatives of service members killed in the line of duty or who died from their injuries. So, again, we're talking about DIC, dependency and indemnity compensation. Uh this bill also uh would extend VA home loan eligibility to National Guard members and reservists. This is another huge piece opening it up um at a much earlier time frame for those individuals. They They're also tacking on a fee there as well, but it's a new benefit that's being created at a much earlier time frame, which is a great thing for them.
So, with that, we'll go ahead and conclude it. Just wanted to bring this to your awareness. If you're not aware, now you are. And if you have any concerns or thoughts, share it with your congressional member. Have a great one and remember, if we don't take care of each other, something went wrong.