Veterans Day is meant to honor those who have served in the armed forces. But a bill that advanced through the House of Representatives on Wednesday afternoon by a controversial voice vote would nearly triple the fee for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ interest rate reduction refinance loan (IRRRL) program from 0.5% to 1.42%.

The measure, previously known as the Sharri Briley and Eric Edmundson Veterans Benefits Expansion Act, is one of more than 60 provisions included in the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act, introduced in June by Mike Bost, R-Ill., who chairs the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.

The legislation seeks to “improve benefits for veterans and the administration of the Department of Veterans Affairs,” per its introduction in the House.

According to Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., House Republicans used procedural subterfuge to push the voice vote through while he was away from the chamber negotiating last-minute bill corrections. That prevented a recorded vote, Takano said during a speech on the almost empty House floor in the aftermath of the bill’s passage.

“The way that the majority contrived to push this bill through was to use decoys, and decoy away the floor staff to negotiate technical changes to the bill that we were supposed to agree to on unanimous consent,” Takano said. “And while this was happening, they very quietly put forward a vote.”

Because of the move, Takano said the minority had no opportunity to ask for its right for a recorded vote. As a result, he said House members did not have to take responsibility for how they would have voted individually.

Takano said it was a “shallow and hollow victory, because it will go nowhere in the Senate.”

Apart from the drama in the lower chamber, the measure has faced a cold industry reception.

Marty Medve, a top VA loan originator at Trident Home Loans, a veteran-owned lender, told Scotsman Guide the measure was “foolish and short-sighted.” Medve is a former Navy carrier pilot.

“It’s a huge deterrent to refinancing when you have to pay a point higher,” Medve said. He noted that if a quarter point is added to a loan to cover the fee, that increase compounds, costing the veteran far more over the life of the loan.

“To do this, you essentially kill the program,” Medve said. “So everybody loses.”

Brendan McKay, owner of McKay Mortgage Co. and chief advocacy officer of the Broker Action Coalition, praised lawmakers for their intention to fund an “unbelievably worthwhile cause” of increasing benefits for surviving spouses and severely disabled veterans. But he said it should not come at the expense of other veterans’ programs.

“The problem is that the way that they are funding those increased benefits is on the backs of active-duty service members and other veterans,” McKay said.

In June, the Mortgage Bankers Association expressed specific concerns about the potential fee increase, stating in a letter to House members that the change would “significantly increase the cost of a VA loan relative to comparable products, undercutting the very program designed to reduce refinancing barriers for Veterans.”