The vice president spoke to sailors (and spouses) at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego today, and outlined details for the temporary expansion of the Housing Assistance Program. The $555 million effort was part of the economic recovery plan passed by Congress earlier this year.

Among his comments:

"In the middle of credit and housing crises, we recognize that military families cannot generally choose when to move, so we've used the Recovery Act to dramatically expand what was once a fairly small program, assisting families forced to relocate due to base closures or normal assignment rotations.

"We owe you. We owe it to those 4,295 fallen angels in Iraq. We owe it to those 697 fallen angels in Afghanistan. We owe it to the 34,084 wounded in both theaters. And we owe it to their families ... We have one obligation above all others: To care for those we've sent overseas when they come home."

Pentagon officials said the 40-year-old Housing Assistance Program, designed to help servicemembers who face financial losses selling their home, has been mainly used in cases of base closings.

But the expanded program will partially reimburse home sale losses for other groups too, including:

** Wounded troops relocating for treatment or medical retirement;
** Survivors of troops who have died while on deployment;
** Troops affected by normal military permanent change of station moves.

Wounded troops and families of the deceased are given top priority in the new program. For PCS and BRAC moves, the homes must have been bought before July 2006. But the new eligibility is retroactive to Feb. 1, 2006, so anyone who sold a home at a loss over the last three years, or is facing that possibility, may be able to take advantage of the program.

Visit here for more details, and look for a full story on the topic in our paper (and on our web front) tomorrow.