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Version 00 · Introduced in House · Mar 6, 2025
BAH Restoration Act
This bill increases the monthly amount of the basic housing allowance for members of the uniformed services inside the United States.
Specifically, the monthly amount of allowance for a member must be the amount of the monthly cost of adequate housing in the area, as determined by the Department of Defense, for members of the uniformed services serving in the same pay grade and same dependency status as the member. (Currently, the allowance is based on the difference between this amount and a percentage of the national average monthly cost of housing for members with the same pay grade and dependency status.)
People & committees
Rep. Strickland, Marilyn [D-WA-10] · D–WA
Legislative record
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Referred to the House Committee on Armed Services.
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Primary sources
Text links open the official source. We also preserved the text version used in the PlainBill explanation below.
Source last updated: Sep 25, 2026. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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PlainBill explanation
Based on the full Introduced in House · 2025-03-06 text. This explanation has not received human editorial review. This overview describes the proposal’s major provisions; it does not establish what its real-world effects would be.
The proposed BAH Restoration Act would set the monthly housing allowance for uniformed service members in the United States equal to the local monthly cost of adequate housing. The Secretary of Defense would determine that cost for members with the same pay grade and dependent status, so the amount would depend on location, pay grade and dependent status.
This Act may be cited as the BAH Restoration Act.
The monthly amount of the basic allowance for housing for an area of the United States for a member of a uniformed service shall be the amount of the monthly cost of adequate housing in that area, as determined by the Secretary of Defense, for members of the uniformed services serving in the same pay grade and with the same dependency status as the member.
Section 2 would replace paragraph (3) of the existing housing-allowance statute with a requirement to use the full monthly cost of adequate housing determined by the Secretary of Defense for the relevant area, pay grade and dependent status.
Paragraph (3) of section 403(b) of title 37, United States Code, is amended to read as follows: (3) The monthly amount of the basic allowance for housing for an area of the United States for a member of a uniformed service shall be the amount of the monthly cost of adequate housing in that area, as determined by the Secretary of Defense, for members of the uniformed services serving in the same pay grade and with the same dependency status as the member.
The supplied action snapshot, updated September 25, 2026, records introduction in the House and referral to the House Committee on Armed Services on March 6, 2025.
Source snapshot updated 2026-09-25T08:06:23Z. 2025-03-06: Referred to the House Committee on Armed Services. 2025-03-06: Introduced in House
A closer look
Reviewed version: Introduced in House · 2025-03-06. These findings describe provisions and who may benefit; they are not judgments of waste, corruption, or motive.
This review covers the supplied bill text. “None identified” does not rule out provisions in later versions or accompanying reports and disclosures.
Provisions outside the bill’s main subject, or policy changes attached to appropriations.
None identified in the reviewed text
No unrelated provision or policy change attached to appropriations was identified in the complete supplied introduced text. This conclusion is limited to that version, not other versions or accompanying materials.
Spending directed to particular recipients or places outside ordinary competitive or formula-based allocation.
None identified in the reviewed text
No congressionally directed spending for particular recipients or places was identified in the complete supplied introduced text. This conclusion is limited to that version; accompanying earmark disclosures and committee materials were not supplied.
Narrow exceptions, exemptions, or preferential treatment that warrant a closer look.
None identified in the reviewed text
No materially narrow carve-out, special exemption or preferential exception was identified in the complete supplied introduced text. The allowance provision concerns the program's intended beneficiaries. This conclusion is limited to that version, not other versions or accompanying materials.
Full text preserved for this analysis. Legislative record snapshot: Sep 25, 2026. How PlainBill uses AI