BAH Calculation Improvement Act

Bill: 117-hr-7562
Sponsor: full_name: Rep. Strickland, Marilyn [D-WA-10]
Introduced: 2022-04-21
Policy area: Armed Forces and National Security
Subjects: Congressional oversight

Housing supply and affordability

Military personnel and dependents
Latest action: action_date: 2022-04-21
text: Referred to the House Committee on Armed Services.

Summaries:
action_date: 2022-04-21
action_desc: Introduced in House
text: <p><strong>BAH Calculation Improvement Act</strong></p> <p>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.</p>

tv_txt: I 117th CONGRESS 2d Session H. R. 7562 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.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the BAH Calculation Improvement Act . 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 ).