National Defense Authorization Act For Fiscal Year 2017

Floor Speech

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Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I rise today to speak in support of an amendment offered by the senior Senator from Alaska, Ms. Murkowski, to strike the changes to the basic allowance for housing, or BAH, that are proposed in section 604 of the Defense authorization bill. This amendment is very similar to one I filed this year as well as one I sponsored last year.

Currently, each servicemember receives a housing stipend based on his or her rank, geographic location, and dependency status. Under section 604, however, this part of the military compensation package would no longer be considered a cash allowance. Instead, servicemembers would be compensated on an actual cost basis similar to the system that was in place in the 1990s, which resulted in a burdensome and inefficient administrative approval process.

Notably, the 2015 Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission established by the fiscal year 2013 National Defense Authorization Act examined the issue of allowances as it assessed the military's compensation and retirement system. The Commission found that the current allowance system strikes an appropriate balance in providing compensation to military members and assistance for their living expenses. The Commission deliberately chose not to recommend any changes to the allowance system, and this view is shared by the Department of Defense. In fact, the Secretary of the Navy called me today to express to his concerns about this provision.

In its Statement of Administration Policy, the administration notes that it strongly objects to section 604, which, in its words, ``would inappropriately penalize some servicemembers over others by linking their BAH payments to their status as members of dual-military couples''--in other words, members of our military who are married to other servicemembers. Under section 604, both members of a dual military couple would be provided a lesser compensation package than other members of equal grade, sending a message that their service is not as highly valued.

The Statement Of Administration Policy went on to note that ``Section 604 would disproportionately affect female servicemembers and those military families in which both military members have chosen to serve their country.'' Twenty percent of servicewomen are married to other servicemembers. By comparison, only 3.8 percent--in other words, less than 4 percent of Active-Duty men--are married to other servicemembers. Thus, women are five times more likely to be affected by this reduction in housing allowances than their male counterparts--five times more likely for the women servicemembers to be affected because they are more likely to be married to servicemembers.

This proposed change would similarly penalize our junior servicemembers who are more likely to live with another servicemember as a roommate to help defray the cost-of-living expenses. As such, this provision could have a profound implication for both recruitment and retention of our all-volunteer force and discourage our best and our brightest from staying in the service.

I do recognize that the Department's personnel costs are a budget concern, but finding savings that unfairly single out some military members is not the way to do it, particularly when one considers the growing role women servicemembers are playing and which I strongly support and admire.

Last year I spearheaded a successful movement to remove a similar provision from the fiscal year 2016 NDAA. I am disappointed to see that this proposal has resurfaced again this year. I am pleased to work with my colleague from Alaska Senator Murkowski to remove a provision that I believe is both unfair and harmful.

I do recognize the very difficult task the Senate Armed Services Committee had in putting together this bill. I commend both the chairman, Senator McCain, and the ranking member, Senator Jack Reed, for their terrific work on so many issues. I do hope they will look again at this particular cut in the basic housing allowance and support our amendment.

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