[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 150 (Monday, September 15, 2025)]
[House]
[Pages H4281-H4282]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SERVICEMEMBER RESIDENCE PROTECTION ACT
Mr. BOST. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill
(H.R. 2334) to amend the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act to preempt any
squatter's rights established by State law regarding real property
owned by a member of the uniformed services, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 2334
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Servicemember Residence
Protection Act''.
SEC. 2. SERVICEMEMBERS CIVIL RELIEF ACT: TOLLING OF PERIOD OF
ADVERSE POSSESSION.
(a) In General.--Section 206 of the Servicemembers Civil
Relief Act (50 U.S.C. 3936) is amended by adding at the end
the following new subsection:
``(d) Tolling of Period of Adverse Possession.--The period
of a servicemember's military service may not be included in
computing a period of adverse possession of such
servicemember's real property.''.
(b) Website.--Not later than 45 days after the date of the
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs
shall consult with the Attorney General and update the
website of the Department of Veterans Affairs and other
relevant websites to include information and resources
regarding--
(1) how a member of the uniformed services may secure real
property while absent for a period of military service;
(2) leasing real property;
(3) landlord-tenant rights and obligations; and
(4) any other relevant information determined necessary by
the Secretary and the Attorney General.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Illinois (Mr. Bost) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Takano) each
will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Illinois.
General Leave
Mr. BOST. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks on
H.R. 2334, as amended.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Illinois?
There was no objection.
Mr. BOST. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 2334, as amended,
offered by the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mast), my friend and
colleague.
This bill would protect servicemembers' homes from squatters while
they are away on Active Duty. Under current law, servicemembers are not
clearly protected under various State adverse possession laws. Due to
this lack of protection, a squatter might be able to move in and make a
claim to that servicemember's home when that servicemember is deployed.
This is outrageous. We must ensure that servicemembers can return to
their homes following a deployment without the worry that someone might
be occupying their home and that they will be forced to get into a
costly legal battle to get their home back.
Mr. Speaker, it should go without saying that this should not be
happening, and I will do what I can to protect our servicemembers.
This important bill would also require the VA and Department of
Justice to work together to provide updated information to
servicemembers about their rights.
I thank Chairman Mast for bringing this issue to the committee's
attention and championing this legislation. We must ensure that
servicemembers' homes are not occupied by squatters while a
servicemember is away serving our great country.
I look forward to continuing to work with the ranking member this
fall on a bipartisan piece of legislation like this one that puts
veterans' and servicemembers' needs first.
Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support H.R. 2334, as
amended, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to express my support for H.R. 2334, the
Servicemember Residence Protection Act, as amended. However, I still
have many concerns that the bill, while well-intentioned, does not live
up to the promises made by some supporters.
I appreciate the work of the majority to improve this bill during our
markup. All of us want to ensure that servicemembers do not return home
from serving their country to find trespassers or squatters living in
their homes. We also want to ensure that servicemembers who are
confronted with this situation have the tools and resources to seek
legal relief.
However, I want to be clear that neither the original bill nor the
amended text that we are considering today will eliminate the
possibility that a servicemember will need to seek judicial or other
legal relief to evict a trespasser.
The ability of Congress to legislate a solution to that particular
issue is legally difficult. The text of H.R. 2334, based on my
amendment in committee, was drafted so as to avoid creating confusion
where courts have already ruled in Servicemembers Civil Relief Act
cases involving adverse possession by codifying existing legal
interpretations of SCRA tolling provisions.
What that means is that many State courts across the country have
already found that the SCRA applied to adverse possession and that the
period of time while the servicemember was away from their property did
not count toward adverse possession. The amended bill simply makes this
existing legal interpretation law.
Since acquiring title to property through adverse possession is a
long and involved process, in practice, this legislation would likely
apply to servicemembers in rare circumstances, such as when an adverse
possessor was able to satisfy all the elements of adverse possession,
including possession for the lengthy statutory period, which is likely
longer than the time that most servicemembers are stationed away from
home.
Mr. Speaker, the other type of trespassing case that a servicemember
may encounter is a holdover tenant, such as may happen if a
servicemember rents out their property while they are away from home.
{time} 1600
Now, many of the stories presented to the committee to support this
bill were of that type of trespass. A servicemember invited someone to
stay at their property while they were gone and then the tenant did not
want to leave.
It is important to follow good practices when becoming a landlord,
such as using a written legal lease agreement, and this legislation
does provide instruction for the Department of Veterans Affairs to work
with the Department of Justice to provide resources on
[[Page H4282]]
landlord-tenant practices and securing vacant property.
However, nothing in this bill removes the requirement that someone
seeking an eviction will need to follow a legal process to do so, which
may include seeking assistance from law enforcement or going to local
courts. Evicting someone from property requires due process. In
addition, the SCRA is not self-enforcing. A servicemember must seek to
enforce all of its protections through a legal process.
Ultimately, servicemembers will need to seek legal assistance to deal
with trespassing cases. We owe it to servicemembers to provide them
with the information and resources to navigate that process.
This legislation, unfortunately, does not bolster access to legal
assistance, but I hope the sponsors of this legislation will join us on
those efforts in the future.
I will be supporting this legislation today, as it does make some
improvements for those servicemembers who find themselves in the rare
occurrence of adverse possession. I hope we can do more in the future,
but I don't want to give the servicemembers the false impression that
this bill will immediately solve the trespassing issues presented to
the committee.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues in the House and the Senate, as
well, to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. BOST. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mast), the sponsor of this bill.
Mr. MAST. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Bost for his work on this
piece of legislation and Ranking Member Takano for working with the
majority on this piece of legislation, the Servicemember Residence
Protection Act.
Mr. Speaker, why this bill? Why do this? It is designed to help those
servicemembers that are affected by somebody squatting in their home,
trespassing, illegally staying in their home, it will help them get
those individuals out in a less costly way and a less intrusive way to
their life.
Why does all of that matter? Why do any of this? These are
servicemembers. I have yet to meet the servicemember that got rich
spending their time in uniform. The work that they do is always
dangerous. It is very often deadly, and it requires them to be away
from home for large amounts of time: whether being away from home is
somewhere around the world doing something dangerous or deadly, or
whether that work is around the country in training for something that
is dangerous and deadly, or whether it is incurring a permanent change
of station to somewhere across the country or the globe where maybe
they have a home that they have to leave and put it up for sale or they
have to rent it out while they are gone. There are a great number of
circumstances that affect our servicemembers with their homes when they
are not around to be the immediate tenants of their homes.
This piece of legislation comes in to help protect them to make sure
that they can get squatters out of their home when these squatters
illegally go into their homes, overstay their time in those homes, or
whatever it might be.
Mr. Speaker, we appreciate the work, again, from the committee on
this. It is a big deal to help our servicemembers in any way, shape, or
form that we can to get people illegally out of their homes. It just
takes an undue stress off our servicemembers so that they can focus on
the missions at hand, which, again, they are dangerous missions. They
are often deadly missions. They deserve the right to focus on those
missions without worrying about anything else.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for the time to speak on this and
for working with me, as well.
Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time for
closing.
Mr. Speaker, I ask all my colleagues to join me in passing H.R. 2334,
the Servicemember Residence Protection Act, as amended, and I yield
back the balance of my time.
Mr. BOST. Mr. Speaker, once again, I encourage all Members to support
this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Bost) that the House suspend the rules and
pass the bill, H.R. 2334, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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