The VA Funding Fee Bill (H.R. 6047): What Arizona Veterans Need to Know

The VA Funding Fee Bill (H.R. 6047): What Arizona Veterans Need to Know

The House passed H.R. 6047 on May 21. The Senate received it on June 2. As I write this in the middle of October, the Senate still has not touched it.

So if you have been putting off a VA streamline refinance because you heard the funding fee is about to triple-- it isn't. Not yet. Maybe never. Here is what the bill actually says, what it would change, and where it stands as of October 14, 2026.

What Is H.R. 6047?

Congress bundled three veteran benefit increases with one pay-for into a single bill, and the pay-for is the VA home loan funding fee change. The bill's official name is the Sharri Briley and Eric Edmundson Veterans Benefits Expansion Act of 2026. Rep. Tom Barrett of Michigan introduced it last November.

The full text is on govinfo, and I've read it so you don't have to. It does four things: it adds a monthly payment for certain severely disabled veterans, it grows survivor benefits, it opens VA home loans to more Guard and Reserve members, and it pays for all of that by changing VA home loan fees.

That last part is why mortgage people like me are watching.

Did the VA Funding Fee Increase Become Law?

No.

For any fee to change, the Senate would have to pass the bill and the President would have to sign it. Neither has happened. The bill's whole journey so far: introduced November 17, 2025; passed the House on May 21, 2026, by a vote of 235 to 179; delivered to the Senate on June 2 and referred to the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs. Nothing since. That June referral is still the newest line on Congress.gov's tracker.

Timing matters here too. If Congress goes home in January 2027 without passing it, the bill dies, and any future version would have to start from scratch in the next Congress.

So the funding fee on a streamline refinance today is 0.5%. It stays 0.5% unless the Senate acts. Our VA IRRRL guide explains how that refinance works.

What Would Change If It Passes?

Two fee numbers would move. Both come straight from the bill text.

The big one is the streamline refinance fee, which would go from 0.5% to 1.42%-- almost triple. On a $300,000 IRRRL, the fee would rise from $1,500 to $4,260. The one softening: the funding fee can usually be financed into the loan instead of paid in cash at closing, per VA.gov's funding fee page.

The quiet one is the loan assumption fee, which would double from 0.5% to 1.0%. An assumption is when a buyer takes over the seller's existing VA loan-- often a great deal when the seller's interest rate is lower than today's market.

The bill leaves exemptions alone. If you have a service-connected disability rating, you pay no funding fee today and you would still pay none. And if you saw headlines about the fee being imposed on veterans rated 70% or below, that idea came up in early discussion around the bill, but it is not in the version the House passed.

The Part Most Articles Miss

Most articles also skip what happens in 2034. Under current law, most VA funding fee rates are scheduled to drop after June 9, 2034. The Congressional Budget Office figures today's average rate of around 2.3% of the loan amount would fall to about 1.2%, per CBO's cost estimate of this bill.

H.R. 6047 would cancel that drop by extending today's rates through September 30, 2036. So the bill raises the two refinance-related fees and keeps every other fee from falling. CBO scores the fee changes at about $4 billion less federal spending over 2026 to 2036. That is the pot paying for the benefits.

Who Pays for the New Benefits?

Borrowers, through those fee changes. Here is where the money goes.

Severely disabled veterans who receive aid and attendance benefits would get a supplemental payment of $833.33 per month starting December 1, 2026. CBO estimates about 8,000 veterans qualify today. Surviving families receiving Dependency and Indemnity Compensation would see their benefit grow faster than inflation-- the first increase runs one percentage point above Social Security's cost-of-living adjustment, and a second one adds half a point. And Guard and Reserve members could become eligible for VA home loans after as little as 14 days of qualifying service plus completed training, with the change reaching back to service performed after September 11, 2001. Members who qualify only through that new pathway would pay an extra 1% fee on their loans.

CBO's math nets the whole bill out to roughly break-even for the Treasury over ten years. The fee increases and the extended fee schedule pay for the benefits.

Who Pays No VA Funding Fee Today?

Worth knowing regardless of this bill. Per VA.gov, you pay no funding fee if any of these describes you:

• You receive VA compensation for a service-connected disability
• You are eligible for that compensation but receive retirement or active-duty pay instead
• You receive Dependency and Indemnity Compensation as a surviving spouse
• You are a service member with a proposed or memorandum rating from a pre-discharge claim
• You are on active duty and can show you received a Purple Heart

There is also a refund path: if you pay the fee and later receive a service-connected disability award retroactive to before your loan closed, you may get the fee back.

And if you want the bigger picture of the benefit itself, our VA loans overview covers the whole program-- purchase and refinance-- in plain English.

What Should Arizona Veterans Do Right Now?

Nothing, honestly. There is nothing to rush.

The fee today is 0.5%, and it stays 0.5% unless the Senate acts. If a streamline makes sense for you because rates have dropped or you want out of an adjustable loan, the rate difference dwarfs either fee. If a lender ever tells you to hurry because fees are about to jump, ask them which law passed. Pretty sure they'll change the subject.

If you are weighing it, start with our VA IRRRL eligibility guide, or look at our VA purchase loans if you are using the benefit for a first home. And if you want a straight answer about your own numbers, call me at (480) 613-8040. I'd rather talk you out of a bad refinance than into a good one.

Where to Watch It

• Bill status and actions (Congress.gov)
• The bill text (govinfo)
• CBO cost estimate, March 12, 2026
• Current VA funding fee rates (VA.gov)

I'll keep an eye on the Senate, and I'll update this post the day anything moves.