Service members civil relief act
On 19 December 2003, President Bush signed into law the "Servicemembers Civil Relief Act" (SCRA). This law is a complete revision of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief Act (SSCRA).
The SSCRA provided a number of significant protections to servicemembers. These include: staying court hearings if military service materially affects servicemembers' ability to defend their interests; reducing interest to 6% on pre-service loans and obligations; requiring court action before a servicemember's family can be evicted from rental property for nonpayment of rent if the monthly rent is $1,200 or less; termination of a pre-service residential lease; and allowing servicemembers to maintain their state of residence for tax purposes despite military relocations to other states.
The SSCRA was largely unchanged from its enactment in 1940.
The SCRA was written to clarify the language of the SSCRA, incorporate many years of judicial interpretation of the SSCRA, and to update the SSCRA to reflect new developments in American life since 1940.