II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 978
To amend the National Housing Act to establish a mortgage insurance
program for first responders, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH12, 2025
Mrs. M
OODY(for herself, Mr. OSSOFF, Mr. CASSIDY, and Mr. WARNOCK) in-
troduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Com-
mittee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
A BILL
To amend the National Housing Act to establish a mortgage
insurance program for first responders, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Homes for Every Local 4
Protector, Educator, and Responder Act of 2025’’ or the 5
‘‘HELPER Act of 2025’’. 6
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SEC. 2. FHA MORTGAGE INSURANCE PROGRAM FOR MORT-1
GAGES FOR FIRST RESPONDERS. 2
Section 203 of the National Housing Act (12 U.S.C. 3
1709) is amended by adding at the end the following: 4
‘‘(z) FHA M
ORTGAGEINSURANCEPROGRAM FOR 5
M
ORTGAGES FORFIRSTRESPONDERS.— 6
‘‘(1) D
EFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 7
‘‘(A) F
IRST RESPONDER.—The term ‘first 8
responder’ means an individual who is, as at-9
tested by the individual— 10
‘‘(i)(I) employed full-time by a law en-11
forcement agency of the Federal Govern-12
ment, a State, a Tribal government, or a 13
unit of general local government; and 14
‘‘(II) in carrying out such full-time 15
employment, sworn to uphold, and make 16
arrests for violations of, Federal, State, 17
county, township, municipal, or Tribal 18
laws, or authorized by law to supervise 19
sentenced criminal offenders or individuals 20
with pending criminal charges; 21
‘‘(ii) employed full-time as a fire-22
fighter, paramedic, or emergency medical 23
technician by a fire department or emer-24
gency medical services responder unit of 25
the Federal Government, a State, a Tribal 26
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•S 978 IS
government, or a unit of general local gov-1
ernment; or 2
‘‘(iii) employed as a full-time teacher 3
by a State-accredited public school or pri-4
vate school that provides direct services to 5
students in grades pre-kindergarten 6
through 12. 7
‘‘(B) F
IRST-TIME HOMEBUYER .—The term 8
‘first-time homebuyer’ has the meaning given 9
the term in section 104 of the Cranston-Gon-10
zalez National Affordable Housing Act (42 11
U.S.C. 12704). 12
‘‘(C) S
TATE.—The term ‘State’ has the 13
meaning given the term in section 201. 14
‘‘(D) T
RIBAL GOVERNMENT .—The term 15
‘Tribal government’ means the recognized gov-16
erning body of any Indian or Alaska Native 17
tribe, band, nation, pueblo, village, community, 18
component band, or component reservation, in-19
dividually identified (including parenthetically) 20
in the list published most recently pursuant to 21
section 104 of the Federally Recognized Indian 22
Tribe List Act of 1994 (25 U.S.C. 5131). 23
‘‘(2) A
UTHORITY.—The Secretary may, upon 24
application by a mortgagee, insure any mortgage eli-25
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gible for insurance under this subsection to an eligi-1
ble mortgagor and, upon such terms and conditions 2
as the Secretary may prescribe, make commitments 3
for the insurance of such mortgages prior to the 4
date of their execution or disbursement. 5
‘‘(3) M
ORTGAGE TERMS; MORTGAGE INSURANCE 6
PREMIUM.— 7
‘‘(A) T
ERMS.— 8
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—A mortgage in-9
sured under this subsection shall— 10
‘‘(I) be made to an eligible mort-11
gagor; 12
‘‘(II) comply with the require-13
ments established under paragraphs 14
(1) through (7) of subsection (b); and 15
‘‘(III) be used only to— 16
‘‘(aa) purchase or repair a 17
1-family residence, including a 1- 18
family dwelling unit in a condo-19
minium project, to serve as a 20
principal residence of the mort-21
gagor, as attested by the mort-22
gagor; or 23
‘‘(bb) purchase a principal 24
residence of the mortgagor, as at-25
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tested by the mortgagor, which 1
is— 2
‘‘(AA) a manufactured 3
home to be permanently af-4
fixed to a lot that is owned 5
by the mortgagor and titled 6
as real property; or 7
‘‘(BB) a manufactured 8
home and a lot to which the 9
home will be permanently 10
affixed that is titled as real 11
property. 12
‘‘(ii) N
O DOWN PAYMENT .—Notwith-13
standing any provision to the contrary in 14
the matter following subsection (b)(2)(B) 15
with respect to first-time homebuyers— 16
‘‘(I) the Secretary may insure 17
any mortgage that involves an original 18
principal obligation (including allow-19
able charges and fees and the pre-20
mium pursuant to subparagraph (B) 21
of this paragraph) in an amount not 22
to exceed 100 percent of the appraised 23
value of the property involved; and 24
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‘‘(II) the mortgagor of a mort-1
gage described in subclause (I) shall 2
not be required to pay any amount, in 3
cash or its equivalent, on account of 4
the property. 5
‘‘(B) M
ORTGAGE INSURANCE PREMIUM .— 6
‘‘(i) U
P-FRONT PREMIUM .—The Sec-7
retary shall establish and collect an insur-8
ance premium in connection with mort-9
gages insured under this subsection that is 10
a percentage of the original insured prin-11
cipal obligation of the mortgage amount, 12
which shall be collected at the time and in 13
the manner provided under subsection 14
(c)(2)(A), except that the premiums col-15
lected under this subparagraph— 16
‘‘(I) may be in an amount that 17
exceeds 3 percent of the amount of 18
the original insured principal obliga-19
tion of the mortgage; and 20
‘‘(II) may be adjusted by the 21
Secretary from time to time by in-22
creasing or decreasing such percent-23
ages as the Secretary considers nec-24
essary, based on the performance of 25
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mortgages insured under this sub-1
section and market conditions. 2
‘‘(ii) P
ROHIBITION OF MONTHLY PRE -3
MIUMS.—A mortgage insured under this 4
subsection shall not be subject to a month-5
ly insurance premium, including a pre-6
mium under subsection (c)(2)(B). 7
‘‘(4) E
LIGIBLE MORTGAGORS .—The mortgagor 8
for a mortgage insured under this subsection shall, 9
at the time the mortgage is executed— 10
‘‘(A) be a first-time homebuyer; 11
‘‘(B) have completed a program of housing 12
counseling provided through a housing coun-13
seling agency approved by the Secretary; 14
‘‘(C) as attested by the mortgagor— 15
‘‘(i) be employed as a first responder; 16
‘‘(ii) have been— 17
‘‘(I) employed as a first re-18
sponder for not less than 4 of the 5 19
years preceding the date on which the 20
mortgagor submitted an application to 21
insure the mortgage under this sec-22
tion; or 23
‘‘(II) released from employment 24
as a first responder due to an occupa-25
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tion-connected disability resulting 1
from such duty or employment; 2
‘‘(iii) be in good standing as a first re-3
sponder and not on probation or under in-4
vestigation for conduct that, if determined 5
to have occurred, is grounds for termi-6
nation of employment; 7
‘‘(iv) in good faith intend to continue 8
as a first responder for not less than 1 9
year following the date of closing on the 10
mortgage; and 11
‘‘(v) have previously never been the 12
mortgagor under a mortgage insured under 13
this subsection; 14
‘‘(D) meet such requirements as the Sec-15
retary shall establish to ensure that insurance 16
of the mortgage represents an acceptable risk to 17
the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund; and 18
‘‘(E) meet such underwriting requirements 19
as the Secretary shall establish to meet actu-20
arial objectives identified by the Secretary, 21
which may include avoiding a positive subsidy 22
rate or complying with the capital ratio require-23
ment under section 205(f)(2). 24
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‘‘(5) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS .— 1
There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out 2
the program under this subsection— 3
‘‘(A) $660,000 for fiscal year 2026, to re-4
main available until expended; and 5
‘‘(B) $160,000 for each of fiscal years 6
2027 through 2032, to remain available until 7
expended. 8
‘‘(6) R
EAUTHORIZATION REQUIRED .—The au-9
thority to enter into new commitments to insure 10
mortgages under this subsection shall expire on the 11
date that is 5 years after the date on which the Sec-12
retary first makes available insurance for mortgages 13
under this subsection.’’. 14
Æ
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