Senator John McCain is now supporting a Senate Bill to cut BHA for married military members to only one spouse allowance. So now if you only live together you each get BHA but if you are married you get a penalty. Four guys living in an apartment get full BHA but two married military get theirs cut ???
Recent News Updates On This Issue:
http://www.dailyrepublic.com/news/military/house-senate-conferees-to-negotiate-key-benefit-changes/
Basic Allowance for Housing
The Senate supports two substantial BAH “reforms.” It would dampen payments stateside to members who are married or share housing off base. It would cap payments to the lesser of what individuals actually pay to rent or the local BAH maximum for their rank and family status. House is silent on these. The White House opposes them.
http://www.breitbart.com/national-s...d-senate-seeks-trim-troops-housing-allowance/
A proposal tucked deep inside the
Senate’s draft of the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), currently being debated on Capitol Hill, seeks to radically reform the U.S. troops’ Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH), arguing that “the benefit now far exceeds the actual cost.”
http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2016/08/the-wrong-way-to-reduce-military-compensation-000179
This year, the Senate and House versions of the National Defense Authorization Act are full of reform initiatives, such as reductions in the number of general officers and the creation of an under secretary of defense for research and engineering. Some are good, some are bad and some are downright ugly. Perhaps the most misguided proposal with the greatest potential for unintended consequences comes from the Senate, which wants to change the military’s basic allowance for housing.
The proposed change sounds perfectly reasonable on the surface. Currently, service members receive an allowance for housing based on their rank, location and dependents without regard for how much they actually spend on housing. If they find a place for less than the allowance, they get to keep the difference. The proposed change would limit the housing allowance to what service members actually spend. Seems fair, right? This is the way the housing allowance currently works for service members stationed overseas.
But if one stops to think through this proposal, several issues emerge. The most obvious problem is the behavior this change would incentivize. Consider a first lieutenant with no dependents who currently rents an apartment in the Washington, D.C., area with two other people. She currently receives a housing allowance of $2,241 per month, but because she’s living with roommates, her share of the rent might only be $1200. With this change, she would no longer get to keep the $1041 difference. So what incentive would she have to economize and live with roommates? Why not get her own place—or move with her roommates to a larger, more luxurious apartment with better amenities—and use the full amount of the benefit? Under the change proposed by the Senate, the housing allowance would become a use-it-or-lose-it benefit.
My own note: The Senate bill passed 85-13, so it had broad support among both parties. The White House (not often accused of being more pro-military than the GOP-majority Senate) opposes the changes to BAH. The House is ignoring the issue , hoping that the White House & Senate hash out a compromise of some kind. And how often can you find Politico & Breitbart posting Op-Eds that take the same side of an issue?????