Office of Rep. Marilyn Strickland announcement.
On April 6, Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland (WA-10) and Congressman Don Bacon (NE-02) introduced the Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) Restoration Act to address the housing crunch that servicemembers and their families face. The legislation would mandate that the Department of Defense (DoD) restore the full BAH benefit and increase access to affordable housing, on and off base. Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) is introducing companion legislation in the Senate.
“Access to affordable housing is one of the top issues I hear from servicemembers at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Servicemembers are being priced out of options to live near their bases, putting strain on our military families,” said Rep. Strickland. “When the Department reduces the housing allowance, it exacerbates economic, food access, and readiness issues. Restoring the BAH to 100% provides servicemembers and their families with stability and shows that meeting their basic needs is a national security priority.”
“Our service members and their families should not have to struggle to find and afford housing. When they volunteer to put their lives on the line for their country, we should be able to guarantee that they will have access to clean and comfortable housing within the allowance they are given,” said Rep. Bacon. “Restoring BAH to 100% will help improve the quality of life for those that are willing to sacrifice so much.”
“Georgia is a military state, and with all that we ask from our servicemembers and their families, ensuring they have quality, affordable housing is the least we can do,” said Senator Reverend Warnock. “I have long been a champion for our servicemembers in Georgia and across the nation, which is why I am proud to partner with Representatives Strickland and Bacon to champion the Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) Restoration Act. Our bill will help ensure military families who sacrifice so much to serve our nation can access safe, dignified housing, and I look forward to introducing companion legislation in the Senate.”
In addition to bipartisan, bicameral support, the legislation has support from servicemember, military family, and veterans advocacy groups, including Military Family Advisory Network, Blue Star Families, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Military Officers Association of America, and the National Military Family Association.
“Our research shows that 69.2% of active duty military family respondents carry the burden of paying more than they can comfortably afford for housing. Furthermore, 59.4% of active duty families living off-installation pay more than $251 beyond their housing allowance each month for housing-related expenses,” said Shannon Razsadin, President and Executive Director of the Military Family Advisory Network (MFAN). “The intersection between housing, economic security, and overarching well-being is clear. We applaud Representatives Strickland and Bacon for their bipartisan effort to support military families who navigate unpredictable housing markets, on average, every two and a half years.”
“Military families struggle to the point of experiencing ‘PCS homelessness’ and chronic money shortfalls because of skyrocketing housing costs, according to our research,,” said Kathy Roth-Douquet, CEO of Blue Star Families. “We were grateful last year to see Chairman Smith address restoring the basic allowance for housing (BAH) to 100 percent, and we continue to urge Congress to restore BAH to cover 100 percent of the calculated rate. We are thrilled that Rep. Strickland and Rep. Bacon are reintroducing legislation this year and we wholeheartedly support the effort to make life easier for thousands of military families.”
“As we weigh in for the future of the All-Volunteer Force, we see the strain being placed on our service members and families, particularly among our junior enlisted,” said Military Officers Association of America President and CEO Lt. Gen. Brian T. Kelly, USAF (Ret). “Financial security starts at home. We are grateful for Representatives Strickland and Bacon’s leadership to care for our service-families by introducing legislation to restore the Basic Allowance for Housing to 100 percent. Our servicemembers give their all to our nation, the least we can do is ensure that we fully provide for adequate housing.”
“Our families move wherever the military sends them, regardless of how expensive the housing is. When they get there, they shouldn’t have to choose between putting food on the table or paying for the roof over their heads,” said Besa Pinchotti, CEO of the National Military Family Association (NMFA). “We appreciate Rep. Strickland’s, Rep. Bacon’s and Senator Warnock’s efforts to ensure that military families can afford to live wherever the military sends them by fully restoring the Basic Allowance for Housing.”
House co-sponsors for the BAH Restoration Act are Scott DesJarlais (TN-04), Rob Wittman (VA-01), Rep Salud Carbajal (CA-24), Rick Larsen (WA-02), Suzan DelBene (WA-01), Derek Kilmer (WA-06), Donald Norcross (NJ-01), Don Beyer (VA-08), Scott Peters (CA-50), Seth Moulton (MA-06), Mike Turner (OH-10), Chrissy Houlahan (PA-06), Jason Crow (CO-06), Sara Jacobs (CA-51), and Blake Moore (UT-01).
The decreased BAH has profound economic effects for many servicemembers and military families. The 2022 Blue Star Families Military Lifestyle Survey found that 81% of military families with out-of-pocket expenses spend over $200 a month above their BAH on housing. Additionally, 24% of servicemembers are estimated to be experiencing food insecurity. Restoring BAH to 100% would have significant ripple effects on the economic health of the nation’s Armed Forces.
In FY2015, Congress authorized, but did not require, the DoD to implement a cost-sharing measure and BAH was adjusted to cover 95%. Servicemembers are entitled to a BAH, which seeks to provide equitable housing compensation based on housing costs in local civilian housing markets within the United States. BAH rates are based on local area rental market data, varying by geographic duty station, pay grade, and dependency status. The DoD hires a contractor to survey rental markets each year, looking for median rent, and utilities for six different types of properties. This system often lags behind dynamic changes in the housing market, especially in high cost of living areas.
THIS IS GREAT!!! Does this include “retro”? Thank you for doing this. Kristy J. Kernen
Thank you for the consideration for our military families. Frequents moves are stressful enough without the added volatility of the housing market.
The US military has never held pay and benefits as a high priority, especially for enlisted personnel.
The emphasis was on service and standards, and pride in being a soldier.
It is true that adequate cost of living compensation is important in keeping our military families from being distracted from the mission of national security.
After all, that is the entire purpose of shouldering the enormous cost of our military right?
But this is today’s woke military, where recruitment is falling further and further behind, not because of pay or compensation, but because future war-fighters don’t want to affiliate with that ideology.
It’s easy to buy votes by throwing tax payer money at social problems, which are actually created by throwing tax payer money at social problems, beyond our military.
What’s hard is getting young people to give of themselves, for the good of a nation they believe in.
I bought my first house as a newly minted single E5.
I got a VA loan at 10.5% and I think I paid as much as 3 points to originate the thing.
It was an old house in need of repair, but it was all I could afford at the time.
The payment was about the same as rent, which isn’t much different from today.
I still have that house, and I rent it out to a disabled soldier and his family for about half the market rate – because I can and I want to.
Representative Strickland and her cohorts seem to promote nothing but social programs, with our tax dollars, of course because government is incapable of “giving” anyone anything that they do not confiscate from someone else.
That is a fact.
The bigger insult here is that these “representatives” pitch bones at us service members with one hand, while undermining the very Constitution we all took a sacred oath to defend, with the other hand.
I don’t know a single veteran who holds a single social program in higher esteem, than the US Constitution and our oath to defend it.
If that has changed since my time, then it is no wonder we are in such decline, and why our foreign adversaries are aligning for WW3.
You always leave out the part where you didn’t pay taxes, for years, ran a business into the ground ( was it 457, 250, 110 or 60 pieces of inventory you lost or didn’t acknowledge selling?) that ultimately cost innocent people their lives. You are not the stellar example of citizenship so please spare us from your ongoing litany of how the world should be run.
Oh, “Valerie”
Are you comfortable hiding behind an anonymous name?
Like any marxist democrat, you pontificate from a position of fantasy.
You know absolutely nothing of which you vomit into this forum, regurgitating the propaganda of your ilk.
I don’t know you, and you damned sure don’t know me.
I can all but guarantee that I have paid more in taxes than you ever will in multiple lifetimes.
I built and sold the business you speak of 3 times, and retired at 52. If that’s running it into the ground, it should be taught in business school instead of the ESG b.s. of today’s woke joke.
As for your accusation of killing people, you pathetic excuse of a human being, I would clearly be in prison if that were true.
I’m sure that would suit you just fine, which is why we must take this country back from the likes of you before that becomes our nightmare reality.
Now let’s examine who is actually killing people.
It’s people like you “Valerie”, who get so caught up in the rage within themselves, that they violate every trust and privilege and right that was ever granted them, dragging innocent people down into the depths of your misery.
Get your facts straight before you engage in slander “Valerie”.
Hmm seems like you are the one with all the rage? You don’t know me, but I know you just as plenty of people know you, old neighbors, co-workers, those who frequented your business and people who watched the news when you lost your license to sell guns. You may not have pulled the trigger, but people are dead and interestingly you have this idea that innocent people do not matter. Your external locus of control is ever obvious. Continue your name calling and hate, it seems to be where you are most comfortable. I really feel sad for you, but I’m sadder for those around you.
I could take you at your challenge to prove this is not slander, but there are those of us who would not want your child exposed to your “truths”. I’m not sure why you think walking away from responsibility would shield you from the truth. Perhaps if you didn’t attack others on here it and continually challenge others with derision you could stay under the radar.
“Valerie”
Now you’re sounding like a creepy old stalker.
My focus was on our so-called elected representatives, and their clear and continuous attack on, and disregard for our Constitutional laws.
That is a citizen’s duty and Right under that Constitution.
You being who you are, do not care for the rule of law, instead siding with those who would manipulate and pervert it to suit your desire.
If you don’t get your way, you slander the opposition of your desired outcome.
You are a truly pathetic and deranged individual.
I have no control over what other people say, and no proof of what you claim to know.
There is no doubt that I have made enemies by confronting thieves and liars such as your self, many of them past employees that I fired.
Your accusation that anyone whoever owned or sold a firearm, which was later used in a murder, is the actual killer, is beyond deranged, and the basis for my argument.
I have already been dragged through that nightmare by the likes of you. I won, and settled my affairs completely.
What have you done with your life besides build mud-castles in a toilet bowl?
Bring all the proof that you have into a court of law “Valerie” and I will eagerly face your accusations.
I have met the enemy and she is you.
I apologize to all readers of this public forum who were exposed to this very personal back-and-forth, between myself and this person who will not reveal their identity.
It was not my intent for that to happen.
I will try to refrain in the future, but a personal attack is not something to shrink from.
Again, you make lots of accusations and insults. Brian, plain and simple you are a bully. You think you must insert yourself in others opinions with the addition of insults in just about every article. It isn’t enough for you to state your opinion, you must name call and denigrate. Free speech isn’t just a singular right for you.
Not sure why I’m supposed to take you to a court of law? That’s an odd twist? Weren’t you already adjudicated in a courtroom? Perhaps you need to simmer down and realize you do not own this paper or others opinions. It really isn’t all about you and your anger.
I don’t see any accusations of anyone selling or owning a gun being responsible for a crime? I do note many thought you were including families of the people murdered by a non secured weapon you owned ( and could not account for). I remember reading an article about that some time ago.
The blame game is all yours. Thankfully there are others in this world that can think with clearer heads and not villianize those with other opinions. You are a self appointed expert, but that still doesn’t mean you are an expert. You expound about your rights while dragging the rights of others and are surprised at push back?
Your collective hate and blame of others has been well documented. You have such a need to let others know what a comprehensive and authoritarian expert you are.
I see now just as I respond that you are apologizing for the above exchange. BTW – I have my real name on here. I chose to remove my last when I started getting DM’s from strangers.
I am grateful to see you will refrain from personal attacks on others as this has been your modus operandi. Perhaps you now understand that others do like to be continually attacked either? Hopefully you will now leave me alone.
Nice gaslight Val.
Goodbye.