VA Loan Fee Changes Just Cleared a Key Hurdle — What Refinance and Assumption Borrowers Need to Do Now

What Just Happened

H.R. 6047, the Sharri Briley and Eric Edmundson Veterans Benefits Expansion Act, cleared the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs on February 12, 2026, making it eligible for a full House vote.² The bill funds long-overdue benefit increases for catastrophically disabled veterans and surviving families — but does so in part by raising fees on other veterans who use VA home loans.³

If it becomes law, the changes would take effect August 1, 2026.¹

Good News on the Purchase Side

The original version of H.R. 6047 proposed stripping the VA funding fee exemption from veterans with disability ratings of 70% or below on subsequent home purchases. That provision was removed. The House Committee amended the bill to preserve the funding fee exemption for all veterans with any service-connected disability rating.¹

Current purchase loan funding fees — which were set to decrease in 2034 — will now stay at today's rates until September 30, 2036.¹

The Fees That Are Rising

Even with the exemption preserved, two fee categories would increase:¹

VA streamline refinance: Funding fee rises from 0.5% to 1.4%
Loan assumption: Funding fee rises from 0.5% to 1.0%

For a $300,000 loan, that means a streamline refinance fee jumps from $1,500 to $4,200 — a difference of $2,700.¹

Who It Affects

These fee increases hit veterans who are refinancing an existing VA loan or assuming one from a seller. Streamline refinances (also called VA-to-VA refinances) are a common tool veterans use to lower their monthly payment without the income and credit verification of a full refinance.⁴

The fee increases apply whether or not you have a disability rating. The exemption only applies to the purchase funding fee, not to refinance or assumption fees.¹

How Veterans Got Here

House budget rules require any new spending to be offset by spending cuts or revenue elsewhere in a committee's jurisdiction.¹ For the Veterans' Affairs Committee, the VA home loan funding fee is one of the few mechanisms available to fund new benefits. The bill seeks to increase Special Monthly Compensation for catastrophically disabled veterans by $833.33 per month (an additional $10,000 annually) and raise Dependency and Indemnity Compensation for surviving spouses — their first base rate increase since 1993.¹

Major veteran service organizations support the benefit increases but oppose using funding fee hikes to pay for them. The American Legion has urged the committee to explore alternatives, citing its longstanding position that the VA funding fee should be eliminated entirely.¹ The Veterans of Foreign Wars warned that imposing fees based on disability percentage "would create a two-tiered system of worthiness."¹

Committee Democrats supported the benefit increases but voted against the bill because of how it is funded. Ranking Member Mark Takano stated: "We cannot charge other veterans thousands of dollars to pay for these benefits. But veterans should not be charged new mortgage fees to pay for the benefits of other veterans. The nation they served should bear the cost — not them."³

What You Can Do

If you are a veteran with a pending VA streamline refinance or are in the process of assuming a VA loan, the window to complete your transaction at current rates closes August 1, 2026.¹ A refinance on a $300,000 loan that closes before that date saves $2,700 in funding fees alone — not including any difference in interest costs.

If you are buying a home with a VA loan, the exemption remains intact regardless of disability rating, so no action is needed on your purchase funding fee.¹