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Lawmakers move to help veterans at risk of losing their homes
Former Marine Jason Miles stands in front of his home in Clinton, Miss. He lost a sales job during the pandemic and had to take a forbearance.
Imani Khayyam for NPR
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Imani Khayyam for NPR
Former Marine Jason Miles stands in front of his home in Clinton, Miss. He lost a sales job during the pandemic and had to take a forbearance.
Imani Khayyam for NPR
The chairmen of the U.S. Senate’s Banking and Veterans Affairs committees introduced a bill Thursday to help veterans at risk of losing their homes because of a COVID-assistance program that the VA ended abruptly in 2022.
The bill, which they call the “Veterans Housing Stability Act,” would let the Department of Veterans Affairs restart the program, which thousands of veterans used to skip mortgage payments when they faced pandemic-related financial problems.
“Our veterans earned their home loan guarantee benefit, and they deserve a viable option to get back on track with payments and keep their homes,” said Sen. Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat and chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee. He sponsored the bill along with Sen. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat who heads the Banking Committee.
Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) departs from a briefing for U.S. Senators at the U.S. Capitol Building on Sept. 7, 2023.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
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Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) departs from a briefing for U.S. Senators at the U.S. Capitol Building on Sept. 7, 2023.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Like millions of other Americans, veterans took advantage of what’s called a COVID mortgage forbearance, which allowed homeowners to stop paying their mortgage for six to 18 months. It was set up by Congress after the pandemic hit for people who lost income. But an NPR investigation last November found that tens of thousands of veterans who took a forbearance were suddenly left with no way to resume making payments after the VA ended a crucial part of the program for people with VA loans.
One homeowner affected was Marine combat veteran Jason Miles.
Miles served four tours, in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria. He lost a sales job during the pandemic and had to take a forbearance when he couldn’t afford his mortgage. Like many veterans, he was told the missed payments would be moved to the back end of his loan term. But then the VA ended the part of the program that allowed homeowners to do that, leaving Miles and thousands of others facing foreclosure.
“This is horrifying,” Miles told NPR in November. “I’m scared to death that we’re about to lose our home.”
After NPR first reported on the problem, the VA stopped the foreclosures and announced a 6 month pause while it worked to roll-out a fix.
The sponsors of Thursday’s bill say their legislation could play a key role. It would make clear that the VA has the authority to restart the program that it shut down back in 2022.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) looks on during a Senate Committee hearing on May 16, 2023.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
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Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) looks on during a Senate Committee hearing on May 16, 2023.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
Brown said the bill “will keep our promises to veterans and servicemembers today and in the future by giving homeowners affordable options to stay in their homes.”
The VA’s Partial Claim Payment program enabled mortgage companies to bundle up the missed payments from a forbearance and effectively move them to the back of the loan term so the homeowner could just return to making their normal mortgage payments – with the same principal and interest payment and interest rate as before the forbearance. The missed payments would get paid back when the homeowner sold the house or refinanced down the road.
The VA told NPR it had concluded that it no longer had the authority to do that after October of 2022. Industry and housing experts disagreed and warned the VA that given a historic spike in mortgage rates, ending the program would strand thousands of veterans with no affordable way to get current on their loans. But the VA ended the program anyway and didn’t replace it.
Since the 1940s, loans backed by the VA have been a bedrock part of the benefits offered to military veterans. But since October of 2022, VA loans have had worse options for homeowners who are behind on payments compared to mortgages backed by the FHA or the government sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
“Our veterans and servicemembers need to be able to bring their mortgage current,” said Tester. “Our bill will ensure they can do that and are granted the same options as they would be under other federally-backed loans.”
The VA guarantees the loans, but they’re actually made and managed by private lenders, who appear supportive of the Senate bill.
“We think a partial claim, which is necessary to enable forbearance in the VA program, is very important,” said Justin Wiseman with the Mortgage Bankers Association. The group has been calling on the VA to offer more affordable ways for homeowners to get current.
Alongside the new legislation, the VA says it is working on a new loan modification program that could help the thousands of vets who were delinquent or in the foreclosure process before it paused foreclosures.
At a press conference on Tuesday, VA Secretary Denis McDonough said he is eager to work with Congress on a fix for the forbearance problem, and promised the VA’s own fix would be ready by summer.
“Each of these steps is meant to ensure that our veterans who have confronted this difficult challenge know that we’re here for them and we can help them manage through this period coming out of the pandemic,” said McDonough, “If that is not the case, I urge our veterans to please be in touch with us so that we can address any questions or concerns or confusion that they’re encountering.”
But while homeowners who were on the verge of foreclosure have a reprieve, there’s another group of vets that may not be getting any help.
Many people with VA loans ended up in loan modifications with much higher monthly payments as a result of the VA ending its pandemic relief program. The VA hasn’t yet told NPR how many veterans this happened to or whether it is going to do anything for them. In an interview with NPR, Sen. Tester acknowledged that this initial bill doesn’t address those veterans – but he vowed that they will be made whole.
“The VA needs to be tracking this and we’re going to continue to put pressure on them,” Tester said.
The VA has paused home foreclosures, which gives Miles some breathing room.
Imani Khayyam for NPR
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Imani Khayyam for NPR
The VA has paused home foreclosures, which gives Miles some breathing room.
Imani Khayyam for NPR
As for veteran Jason Miles in Mississippi, back in November his mortgage company was telling him he had to come up with a years worth of missed payments all at once to make his loan current.
“It was essentially you’ve gotta pay the $20,000 or you’re going into foreclosure.”
These days Miles is a teacher and a coach at Clinton Christian Academy, a high school in Clinton, Miss. But even after selling some furniture and some of his firearms, there was no way he could come up with a lump sum payment to avoid losing the house where he lives with his wife and three children.
He could, however, afford to resume making his monthly mortgage payments. But his mortgage company still won’t accept monthly payments unless he somehow gets his loan current again.
Now that the VA has paused foreclosures, that gives Miles some breathing room. He just hopes the VA can actually come up with a fix.
“I’m still very nervous about it,” he says. But he adds, “I have hope now.”
News
Trump’s name must come off the Kennedy Center by June 12
Lawyers for what is currently called the Trump Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts are instructing staff to immediately begin switching the name of the facility back to its original title.
The instructions, laid out in a memo sent Thursday by the center’s general counsel and obtained by CBS News, are the first official signal the national arts hub is complying with a federal court order to drop President Trump’s name and reconsider plans to close for two years of renovations.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper last week ruled in favor of Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio, a member of the Kennedy Center’s Board of Trustees, who filed a lawsuit challenging the institution’s name change and plans to close for two years for extensive repairs beginning this summer.
Cooper found the board had overstepped its authority and ordered the president’s name to be removed from “the institution’s title, as represented on the façade of the Center, any other physical or digital signage, and official materials.”
The memo to staff Thursday said staff “must immediately change email signatures, letterhead, and other documents to reflect the name as ‘The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,’ or ‘Kennedy Center.’”
Changes to interior and exterior signage and any furniture carrying the current name must be switched back by next Friday, according to the memo.
The Kennedy Center didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The memo also says center officials still are “considering their options and will provide further guidance shortly” on whether the center will remain open after July 5, when extensive renovations costing $257 million are set to begin.
In his order, Cooper agreed renovations to the arts center are “sorely needed,” but he wrote his preliminary injunction does not “categorically” bar the board from closing the Kennedy Center, “should it come to this decision anew after independently balancing its multiple obligations to the Center in a prudent fashion.”
“By way of this opinion, the Court does not purport to dictate how the Center should be run, nor does it prescribe any particular plan for the institution — construction, closure, or otherwise — moving forward,” he wrote. “It simply holds the Kennedy Center Board to certain minimum requirements imposed by law. Beyond that, the Court will let the parties play on.”
In the early weeks of his second term, Mr. Trump replaced several members of the center’s Board of Trustees with senior members of his administration and close allies, who then elected him as chair.
In December, the Kennedy Center’s board voted to change the performing arts institution’s name to The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. Within hours, the Kennedy Center’s website was updated to read “The Trump Kennedy Center” and crews went to work adding Mr. Trump’s name to the building’s facade. But lawmakers and legal scholars said such a change required congressional action.
Several artists who were set to perform at the institution canceled performances and the executive director of the National Symphony Orchestra, which performs at the Kennedy Center, left for a new job.
News
National Guard has done little to reduce violent crime in D.C., a new study finds
National Guard members stand watch near the Lincoln Memorial on the morning of Memorial Day in Washington, DC, May 25, 2026.
Alex Wroblewski/AFP via Getty Images
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Alex Wroblewski/AFP via Getty Images
President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in Washington, D.C. has reduced petty property crimes, but has had little to no effect on violent crime, despite the high cost to taxpayers, according to a new analysis from the nonpartisan think tank Niskanen Center.
The study’s findings were published just weeks after federal officials announced that the number of troops in D.C. is set to double this summer to 5,000 as part of a “summer surge” of law enforcement ahead of events planned for America’s 250th birthday celebration.
Trump deployed the National Guard to D.C. last August, as part of the administration’s Safe and Beautiful Task Force, which he said was an effort to reduce crime and beautify the city. The task force includes hundreds of federal law enforcement — including immigration enforcement — working in conjunction with local police. It’s an approach that Trump previously said he wants to carry out in “many cities,” and already has in places like Memphis and New Orleans.
There are currently around 2,800 National Guard members deployed to D.C. from both the city itself and about a dozen other states, all of which have Republican governors. In contrast to other controversial National Guard deployments by Trump during his second term, the president has the authority over the Guard in D.C.
Guard members do not legally have the power to carry out arrests, but can detain individuals.
Troops — many of whom are armed — are largely carrying out what are called “high visibility patrols” to make their presence known around federal property and in residential areas, parks and city metro stations in an effort to free up D.C. police to redeploy to higher-crime areas. The report found that generally hasn’t happened.
Instead, researchers found that the deployment led to a 24% drop in “opportunistic” crimes — like property crimes and vehicle break-ins. But the presence of the Guard had no effect on violent crimes, including robberies, which were already on a downward trend before Trump came back into office.
“What the Guard brought was a massive, sudden shock from the visible presence of uniformed military personnel on the streets of Washington almost overnight,” researchers wrote, calling the deployment of the Guard a “blunt and expensive instrument.”
A recent assessment by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that it costs the federal government around $1.5 million per day for the current number of troops deployed to D.C.
“I think on balance the National Guard’s deployment is not a failure, there is success in what they’ve done. But I guess the point that we try to make is: compared to what?” says Richard Hahn, one of the authors of the study. “You could get the same or better outcomes, possibly much better outcomes, for much cheaper, if you just were very thoughtful about policing.”
In response to NPR’s request for comment about the study, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said that it “should not be taken seriously.”
“The President’s Safe and Beautiful Task Force and National Guard presence have driven down crime, beautified the city, and improved quality of life for countless individuals,” Jackson said, without providing any evidence.
It’s unclear when the planned “summer surge” would end, or if the number of National Guard troops in the city would return to their current levels in the fall.
“Our message today is that we’re not done. We are not satisfied. We are not content with good. We are coming for perfection, and we won’t be done until we reclaim every last inch of ground on anyone seeking to do harm in our nation’s capital,” Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald said when announcing the surge.
NPR reached out to task force officials behind the Guard deployment for clarity on when the surge might start or end, but did not receive an immediate response.
News
How Each House Member Voted on the Iran War Powers Resolution
Vote
Total
Democrats
Republicans
215
211
4
208
0
208
The House on Wednesday passed a measure to direct President Trump withdraw U.S. forces from Iran or win congressional approval to continue military operations there. The vote was the fourth of its kind in the chamber since the war began, the previous three having failed.
A vote on this measure was originally scheduled for last month but was pulled by House Republican leaders after it became clear they lacked the votes at the time to defeat it because of several members’ absences. Several Republicans were also absent on Wednesday, but party leaders were unable to delay the vote any longer.
Votes fell mostly along party lines, with the exception of four Republicans, who voted with Democrats to pass the measure. Representative Jared Golden, Democrat of Maine, who had previously voted with Republicans, flipped and voted with his party.
Republicans who voted against their party
The House vote came after four Senate Republicans last month broke from their party to advance a measure to assert the legislature’s role in authorizing the war. The Senate had rejected seven other similar measures, but Republicans in both chambers have expressed increased uneasiness with the conflict as it wears on.
Even if a war powers resolution passed in both the House and Senate, it would be subject to an all-but-certain veto by Mr. Trump, which would need a two-thirds majority in both chambers to override. Beyond that, the president and his senior aides have frequently dismissed efforts by Congress to rein in his war powers, saying they are unconstitutional.
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Did not vote
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