Title: BAH Calculation Improvement Act
Policy area: Armed Forces and National Security

Summary:
BAH Calculation Improvement Act
This bill requires the Department of Defense to submit to Congress a report on the basic allowance for housing for members of the uniformed services that includes elements related to the calculation of such allowance.

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 4564 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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117th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 4564

To direct the Secretary of Defense to report on the basic allowance for 
             housing for members of the uniformed services.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             July 20, 2022

   Mr. Warnock (for himself, Mr. Blumenthal, Ms. Cortez Masto, Mrs. 
   Feinstein, Mr. Ossoff, Mr. Bennet, Mr. Tester, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. 
  Warner, Mr. Merkley, and Mr. Booker) introduced the following bill; 
  which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Armed Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To direct the Secretary of Defense to report on the basic allowance for 
             housing for members of the uniformed services.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``BAH Calculation Improvement Act''.

SEC. 2. REPORT ON BASIC ALLOWANCE FOR HOUSING FOR MEMBERS OF THE 
              UNIFORMED SERVICES.

    (a) In General.--Not later than one year after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to the 
Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and the House of 
Representatives a report on the basic allowance for housing for members 
of the uniformed services.
    (b) Elements.--The report required by subsection (a) shall contain 
the following elements:
            (1) The evaluation of the Secretary--
                    (A) of the efficiency and accuracy of the current 
                system used to calculate the basic allowance for 
                housing for members of the uniformed services under 
                section 403 of title 37, United States Code;
                    (B) the appropriateness of using mean and median 
                housing costs in such calculation;
                    (C) of existing military housing areas, in relation 
                to choices in, and availability of, housing for members 
                of the uniformed services; and
                    (D) of the suitability of the six standard housing 
                profiles in relation to the average family sizes of 
                members of the uniformed services, disaggregated by 
                uniformed service, rank, and military housing area.
            (2) The recommendation of the Secretary--
                    (A) regarding the feasibility of including 
                information, furnished by Federal entities, regarding 
                school districts, in calculating the basic allowance 
                for housing;
                    (B) whether to calculate the basic allowance for 
                housing more frequently, including in response to a 
                sudden change in the housing market;
                    (C) whether to enter into an agreement with a 
                commercial entity, to compile data and develop an 
                algorithm, in order to calculate the basic allowance 
                for housing; and
                    (D) whether to publish the methods used by the 
                Secretary to calculate the basic allowance for housing 
                on a publicly accessible website of the Department of 
                Defense.
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