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]
[H.R. 7562 Introduced in House (IH)]

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117th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 7562

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


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 21, 2022

   Ms. Strickland (for herself, Mr. Bishop of Georgia, Mr. Lieu, Ms. 
  Malliotakis, Mr. Brown of Maryland, and Mrs. Hayes) introduced the 
 following bill; which was 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) Report; Elements.--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 House of Representatives 
a report on the basic allowance for housing for members of the 
uniformed services. Such report shall contain the following elements:
            (1) The evaluation of the Secretary--
                    (A) of the efficiency and accuracy of the current 
                system used to calculate BAH;
                    (B) the appropriateness of using mean and median 
                housing costs in such calculation;
                    (C) of existing MHAs, in relation to choices in, 
                and availability of, housing to servicemembers; and
                    (D) of the suitability of the six standard housing 
                profiles in relation to the average family sizes of 
                servicemembers, disaggregated by uniformed service, 
                rank, and MHA.
            (2) The recommendation of the Secretary--
                    (A) regarding the feasibility of including 
                information, furnished by Federal entities, regarding 
                school districts, in calculating BAH;
                    (B) whether to calculate BAH 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 BAH; and
                    (D) whether to publish the methods used by the 
                Secretary to calculate BAH on a publicly accessible 
                website of the Department of Defense.
    (b) Definitions.--In this section:
            (1) The term ``BAH'' means the basic allowance for housing 
        for members of the uniformed services under section 403 of 
        title 37, United States Code.
            (2) The term ``MHA'' means military housing area.
            (3) The term ``servicemember'' has the meaning given such 
        term in section 101 of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (50 
        U.S.C. 3911).
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