Reply to White House 'Strongly Opposes' Proposed 19.5% Pay Hike for Junior Enlisted Troops

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Im not sure I understand what the issue is....they are doing a military wide compensation review and want that completed BEFORE signing a 19.5% pay hike correct?

"While Tuesday's statement from the White House suggested Congress should wait until the administration's review is done to make any significant changes to military pay, the senior enlisted leaders for all the military services earlier this year urged lawmakers to act immediately to boost service members' pay.

Additionally, a House Armed Services Committee staffer told reporters last month that a 15% raise for junior enlisted service members is among the options the administration's review is considering.

The White House's statement Tuesday cited cost as a concern with the House's plan. A Congressional Budget Office analysis released Monday estimated the increase in pay for junior enlisted troops would cost $24.4 billion from 2025 to 2029.

The administration also argued that service members have already received significant raises in recent years, citing the 5.2% troops got this year and the 4.6% increase last year.

"If the president's FY 2025 request is enacted, service members will have received a 15% basic pay increase in just three years," the statement said, though it would actually add up to 14.3%."

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Senior military leaders recommend this. They know lower enlisted troops are struggling.
Bipartisan leadership in the House Armed Services committee recommends this. They have examined the issues.

[b]Lower enlisted troops can’t afford housing[/b]. How do you think that’s not  problem?[/quote]

Then housing allowance should be adjusted. Let the formal review be completed and then push this forward. This is all delayed from previous administrations.

Ill also add that the bill the House Committee is trying to push through REMOVES MARIJUANA TESTING FOR RECRUITMENT AND ENLISTED!!!!!

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Do you have a citation that this was delayed by previous administrations? [/quote]

[url]https://www.navycs.com/charts/[/url] [url]https://www.military.com/daily-news/2022/12/07/2023-military-pay-raise-will-be-largest-20-years.html[/url]
You can see year by year. President, year, increase. It usually matches fed increases.

Obama recession, no one got raises. Clinton balancing the budget- no one got raises. But Bush and Trump both pro-military and the raises were eh.

And you are uneducated if you think that the base pay is all they get. [url]https://www.navycs.com/military-pay.html[/url] And most of the allowances are untaxed. So when you talk about 2000 BAH you need to increase it to what it would be for taxed rate because its untaxed.

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Dude I retired after 27 years. I am shocked Biden talks about his son and Dr. Jill talks about military families needing support and lower enlisted are struggling to pay their rent.

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They arent struggling to pay their rent. They are struggling because the bases are in HCOL and the government doesnt properly adjust for COL. The government also wont regulate housing and who is purchasing housing. The Ft Carson example was talking about people wanting to buy homes because of VA loans and equity but buying a home isnt a guarantee and shouldnt be what we are increasing pay towards. They have 26000 personnel but only 3100 housing units. Why was base personnel expanded without housing expanded? The base command is now advocating for reduction in builder liability so that they can get more condos built......they are all over the place. And then commenting about how some of the families have to have dual incomes to survive........ermmm yes so do most families. I didnt realize that being an enlisted meant you got a SAHP. Are we subsidizing that now?

Id love to see the numbers on how much base housing costs the military to run versus BAH

[/quote]

With skyrocketing rental costs, military personnel being forced to pay out-of-pocket for place to live

The Defense Department's Basic Allowance for Housing hasn't kept pace. The Blue Star Families and House Armed Services Committee called for an increase.

https://www.13newsnow.com/article/news/national/military-news/with-skyrocketing-rental-costs-military-personnel-being-forced-to-pay-out-of-pocket-for-housing/291-7dce187f-52bb-45d4-90fa-3d0abd71c68b

NORFOLK, Va. — Because there simply isn't enough military-owned housing for the nation's 1.3 million military active-duty members, many of them have no choice but to live off-base.
73% of military personnel who live in civilian housing pay well over $200 per month in housing costs out of pocket—beyond the Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) they receive from the government—according to a 2023 survey from Blue Star Families.

A 2022 Blue Star Families survey found that 98% of respondents said finding rental housing within $200 of the service member's BAH was "somewhat difficult" to "extremely difficult."
The findings are drawing the attention of Capitol Hill.
"These housing shortages force military families to strain their budgets and pay more than they can afford or to undergo long commutes," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts), during a hearing last week of the Senate Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee.
At the same hearing, Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel Ashish Vaziarni said: "Access to affordable housing certainly will improve the quality of life for military families. We're very focused on that."
Currently, the BAH is calculated at 95% of the local market cost.
Blue Star Families says the allowance needs to return to 100%.

Military families’ housing benefits lag as rents explode: ‘That could be $20,000 that we’re paying out of pocket above BAH’

https://fortune.com/2022/08/20/military-families-housing-benefits-lag-as-rents-explode-bah-housing-bubble/

When Kristin Martin found out her husband was being transferred to Naval Base San Diego, securing housing for their family of five quickly took over her life.

On-base housing wasn’t an option — the waitlist for a four-bedroom home in the neighborhoods they qualified for was 14 to 16 months.

Neither were the military-only hotels near base where new arrivals can pay low rates as they get their bearings — those were full, too.

So Martin cast a wide net across San Diego and started applying for rental homes, all sight unseen.

“I was waking up and the first thing I was doing was looking at properties,” Martin said. “I was looking at it midday, before I went to bed. I had alerts set. It became a full-time job.”

More than 30 rental applications later and hundreds of dollars in application fees down the drain, the Martins finally found a home.

But there were caveats. They’d have to start paying rent a month before they actually moved. And, at $4,200 per month, their rent was nearly $700 more than the monthly basic allowance for housing, known as the BAH, that her husband, a lieutenant, receives.

“We’ll probably be here two or three years, so that could be $20,000 that we’re paying out of pocket above BAH just for rent,” Martin said after completing her family’s fourth move in 15 years last month.

“It’s affecting us personally but then I think about how we were a junior enlisted family at one point. I cannot imagine the struggles (they) are going through.”

Housing has long been a major benefit for service members, a subsidy to salaries that trail the private sector. But, amid record-breaking spikes in rent, the Department of Defense has neglected its commitment to help military families find affordable places to live, service members and housing activists say.

That’s forced many to settle for substandard homes, deal with extremely long commutes or pay thousands out of pocket they hadn’t budgeted for.

“We have families coming to us that are on exorbitantly lengthy waiting lists and sitting in homes that they can’t afford, like an Airbnb rental, or they’re at a hotel or camping in tents or living in RVs,” said Kate Needham, a veteran who co-founded the nonprofit Armed Forces Housing Advocates in May 2021.

[i]“I don’t think civilians really understand — they might think we’re living in free housing and just having a great time, making lots of money. And that’s not the case at all.”[/i]

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So I want to be clear here you are advocating for military personnel to receive a paycheck and then for all of the allowances to cover: housing, some utilities, medical care for themselves and their dependents, childcare if available, etc. So their paychecks, which apparently is the only one coming in since enlisted need SAHP are meant to pay for food, cars, savings, and clothing? They get 0% loans, pensions, veterans preference, spousal preference, and lots of funds not taxed and we are arguing about 5% BAH? 
[/quote]

That’s what Senior Enlisted leaders and the House Armed Services Committee recommended, bipartisan, both r and d.

That is their recommendation. Do you know better than they do? If so what are your qualifications?[/quote]

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