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MortgagePoint » Your Trusted Source for Mortgage Banking and Servicing News 62 August 2025 J O U R N A L the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and U.S. Department of Ag- riculture's (USDA) Rural Housing Service (RHS), from their federal income taxes. This deduction expired after tax year 2021. "By restoring this tax deduction, Congress and the President are standing up for American homeowners, homebuy- ers, and taxpayers," said Seth Appleton, President of U.S. Mortgage Insurers, an association representing the nation's lead- ing private MI companies. "We welcome the inclusion of this deduction in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the tax relief it will deliver to millions of hard-working American homeowners with low down payment mortgages." During the time the previous tax code was in effect: • The MI premium deduction was claimed 44 million times, repre- senting a combined $65 billion in deductions. • Four million homeowners claim the deduction annually. • The average deduction amount was $1,454 per qualified taxpayer. Previous efforts to reinstate the deduction were supported by lawmak- ers from both parties and chambers of Congress, as well as a broad coalition of industry groups, housing advocates, and civil rights organizations, as well as lawmakers from both parties and cham- bers of Congress. Past standalone bills to reinstate the deduction were championed by Sens. Thom Tillis and Maggie Hassan, as well as Reps. Vern Buchanan and Jimmy Panetta. USMI's "2024 National Home- ownership Market Survey" found that Americans see private MI as providing benefits, including enabling borrowers to qualify for mortgage financing with a down payment as low as 3%, allowing access to homeownership, and the ability to begin building equity sooner. Rather than waiting years to save for large down payments, private MI allows homebuy- ers to get off the sidelines sooner and is a small cost that has declined in recent years due to the 2017 Trump tax cuts and enhanced risk-based pricing. Allowing MI premiums to be deducted at parity with mortgage interest payments further reduces costs for eligible low-down-pay- ment borrowers. "Just as Congress has taken action to deliver tax relief to individual taxpayers and support middle class homeowners by reinstating and making permanent the MI premium deduction, the private MI industry serves as a strong, dedicated source of private capital that each and every day enables homeownership for American families and protects taxpayers writ large from the risks of future housing downturns," Appleton said. "In fact, since the GSEs entered conservatorship, the private MI industry has covered nearly $60 billion in claims, shielding the GSEs and the taxpayers who stand behind them from significant financial losses." Recently released data from U.S. Mortgage Insurers show that the private MI industry helped more than 800,000 borrowers secure mortgage financing in 2024. First-time homebuyers who will now be able to claim the MI premium deduction represented approximately 65% of purchasers with private MI. In addition, the industry supported nearly $300 billion in mortgage originations in 2024, according to public filings, repre- senting $300 billion worth of mortgage credit extended to borrowers for which Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, taxpayers, lenders, and investors are protected from risk of loss. SUPREME COURT CLEARS PATH FOR TRUMP'S FEDERAL WORKFORCE CUTS T he U.S. Supreme Court has reversed a court order, allowing federal agencies across the gov- ernment to resume laying off workers and drastically reducing staff. President Trump's original executive order and memorandum, the "Depart- ment of Government Efficiency" Work- force Optimization Initiative, included guidance for staff reduction, including a general standard that no more than one employee should be hired for every four employees that depart, removing un- derperforming employees, and allowing term or temporary positions to expire without renewal. In the executive order, President Trump required that "Agency Heads shall promptly undertake preparations to initi- ate large-scale reductions in force (RIFs), consistent with applicable law." U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco halted the layoffs, ruling in late May that the approximately 20 affect- ed agencies will not be able to function as Congress intended. According to USA Today, in an un- signed and brief opinion, the Supreme Court justices said they are not ruling on the legality of a specific reorgani- zation plan. The Supreme Court said the district judge was wrong to stop the Trump administration from moving ahead with such plans. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, calling it the "wrong decision at the wrong moment, especially given what little this Court knows about what is actually happening on the ground." In late April, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson temporarily halted the Trump administration's mass layoffs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), shortly after an appeals court narrowed an earlier injunction. Judge Berman Jackson's order temporarily blocked the terminations, which would have slashed the CFPB's workforce by roughly 90%. Judge Berman Jackson's order comes after plaintiffs in the case, which included the CFPB Employee As- sociation and other labor entities, accused the government of violating an earlier injunction. The case landed at the Supreme Court after a district judge in California ruled in favor of the unions, municipali- ties, and advocacy groups that sued over Trump's workforce reduction plans, and an appeals court subsequently allowed that ruling to remain in place.