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House Passes Legislation Containing
Veterans Provision Championed by Herger
December 18, 2007
(Washington, DC) - December 18, 2007. Rep. Wally Herger today reported
that the House passed H.R. H.R. 3997, the Heroes Earning Assistance and
Relief Tax Act of 2007. The bill includes a Herger-sponsored provision
that would enable more California veterans to purchase a home, among other
provisions important to Northern California veterans. Herger has led the
effort to pass this provision on behalf of California veterans since 2005,
and this Congress he joined Democratic Representative Susan Davis (CA-53)
in introducing stand alone legislation to fix this problem. His remarks
made on the House floor are below:
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. An important provision of the HEART Act
will help veterans in my home state achieve the American Dream of homeownership.
In our pursuit of this provision, I joined my California colleague Susan
Davis to introduce stand-alone legislation on this issue, and I thank
her for her leadership.
"Currently, several states are allowed to issue what are called
Qualified Veterans Mortgage Bonds, which are tax-exempt bonds. In California,
the Cal-Vet home loan program uses the proceeds from these bonds to help
pay for low cost mortgages for our nation's heroes returning from war.
For our state and Texas, however, until this provision today, only veterans
who ended their military service before 1977 were allowed to receive these
low cost home loans using proceeds from Qualified Veterans Mortgage Bonds.
"Now all veterans - regardless of when they served - will be eligible
under the QVMB financed program. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his
administration deserve credit for their unwavering support of this change.
This provision has been several years coming. I am very pleased to say
that it will help many recent California servicemen and women purchase
their own home, regardless of when they served. Thank you and I yield
back the balance of my time."
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