The House Armed Services Committee will take up a defense authorization bill next week that would authorize the Pentagon to spend $1.2 billion to increase housing allowance payments for U.S. servicemembers.
If the draft National Defense Authorization Act becomes law with that provision intact — and, more importantly, if appropriators provide those funds — it would address one of military families’ top five complaints about their quality of life, according to a 2023 Blue Star Families survey.
For some servicemembers who live in parts of the country where housing is particularly expensive, such as Washington state, the issue is the No. 1 concern about military life.