Democrats in both chambers have been angling for several years to give military families more money to cover housing costs, and they are at it again — this time with some influential GOP support.
Last year, Rep. Marilyn Strickland, D-Wash., and Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., filed bills that would require the Defense Department to pay 100 percent of troops’ Basic Allowances for Housing, which cover the cost of commercial housing in the United States for the roughly two-thirds of the U.S. active-duty force that does not live in the military services’ on-base quarters.
The rate of reimbursement was 100 percent from roughly 2005 to 2015. But for most of the years since then, the Pentagon has paid 95 percent of the tab while military families have had to cover the other 5 percent. The fiscal 2015 NDAA (PL 113-291) authorized the reduced housing payments as a cost-saving measure.
