A bill has been introduced in the House that would give the Defense Department flexibility to help more military homeowners under the expanded Homeowners Assistance Program.Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., introduced a bill Dec. 15 that would allow defense officials to change the qualifying home purchase date for homeowners transferred under permanent change-of-station orders. The law now requires that the home must have been purchased by July 1, 2006, in order to qualify for assistance when the homeowner later had to sell the because of military reassignment orders.Many military homeowners who bought their homes later in 2006 have questioned the cutoff date, saying the market had not yet entered its steep downturn and they had no inkling at that time that they would be facing potentially large losses on the sale of their homes.The bill has been referred for consideration to the House Armed Services Committee and House Financial Services Committee.