Washington D.C. – Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland (WA-10) called for full funding of the Basic Allowance for Housing and criticized the reallocation of military housing funds to the southern border. Strickland’s remarks are transcribed below, and can be viewed here:
Chairman Mike Rogers: The gentleman yields back. The Chair now recognizes the gentlelady from Washington, Ms. Strickland.
Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland: Thank you, Chairman Rogers. It is nice to see you, Secretary Driscoll and General George – formerly of First Corps at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. So glad to see your role in the Army.
So, in our testimony today you’ve heard a lot about quality of life, and I was appointed to serve on the Quality of Life Panel. And we know that housing has always been a very, very important factor. And I heard one of you say that recruitment is how you actually judge whether we’re doing well, but I would also say that retention is just as important.
We are thrilled, in a bipartisan way, to see the recruiting numbers go up. That is a multi-year, bipartisan effort that started in 2023. And even in August of 2024, we had record numbers of recruiting for the Army. So, kudos to everyone, and let’s see those numbers continue to rise.
But I want to talk about the Basic Allowance for Housing. I know that in the reconciliation bill, there is a provision for a one-time infusion of nearly 3 billion dollars into the Basic Allowance for Housing account. But there’s no further direction on how that money is going to be allocated.
So, let’s assume this bill becomes law. How does the Army intend to use this money? Are you going to, for example, raise the Basic Allowance for Housing up to 100 percent and keep it there? Are you going to take it up to 98 percent? Can you be more specific about how we plan to use this Basic Allowance for Housing?
I’ll start with Secretary Driscoll and then General George.
Secretary Daniel Driscoll: And just to your point, Congresswoman – first the retention we totally agree. We’re thrilled. We told one of your colleagues earlier that we hit our 12-month-goal six months into this year, which makes us feel good about the state of the Army. And to your point, those mechanisms and that experience those soldiers had began years and years and years ago, to make them want to sign back up to enlist.
For BAH and for what we do with military construction and for how we provide our soldiers what they deserve, where they deserve to live individually, and where they deserve to live with their families, one of the fundamental problems we have – and we desperately need your help – is when we build something on the base, like just inside of our gate.
We just did a study. It’s 68.5 percent more expensive than on the other side. And as far as we can tell, the vast majority of those inefficiencies are not from us – they’re legislated to us. And so, as we think about soldier housing and work together to solve it, we want to work with you to get rid of a lot of those regulations.
Strickland: I appreciate that. Now, can you go to my question about the Basic Allowance for Housing. 3 billion dollars in the reconciliation bill. How do you plan to distribute that money? Are you going to raise it to 100 permanently? To 98 percent permanently? That’s my specific question.
General Randy George: I would have to follow up. I don’t remember. I know that was the intent was to fully cover the cost. I don’t remember if that was a step. You know the challenge when I was out at Lewis was, you know, these things happen very quickly as far as what happened out there. It was a very hot housing market. And then put, you know, real strain.
So I think we also need to just figure out how we are a little bit more dynamic in our process when prices go up. Obviously, no one minds getting a little bit more in their checkbook – I know I didn’t from growing up. You know, the problem is when the costs go down and how you adjust some of those things. But I do think we need to be more flexible in how we’re figuring, you know, some of those things out moving forward. So that we’re more responsive which is what was the problem that I experienced at the JBLM. We weren’t quick enough with, you know, with our soldiers, and getting the money as the prices were going up.
Strickland: So what do we plan to do with this 3 billion dollars? Is there a plan?
George: It’s specifically labeled. I would have to come back to you. It’s specifically labeled for housing and BAH then that’s what we would use it on. If that’s how it’s been in the bill.
Strickland: So the Basic Allowance for Housing will go up?
George: Is that specific to Joint Base Lewis-McChord or–?
Strickland: It just says “Basic Allowance for Housing 3 billion dollars” in the reconciliation bill. And my question is how do you plan to deploy that money? Is it going to go up?
George: It would go against housing.
Strickland: Okay. All right. And then one final comment I want to make. You’ve heard a lot about funding for barracks, obviously. And I’m going to add and pile on to this, just to emphasize how important this is to so many Members who sit on this Committee.
And it was a little disheartening to hear that you’re going to reprogram a billion dollars from barracks housing to put to the southern border. And we’ve got people at Camp Humphreys, we’ve got people at JBLM, we have people around the world. And if you visited those barracks, as you all know, the condition is deplorable.
A college parent taking their student to see the quality of those dorms would actually raise holy hell about it or have them disenroll from that school. And so I think my question is, you know, please think carefully about restoring that money. It’s a quality-of-life –
Rogers: Gentlelady’s time has expired. Chair now recognizes gentleman from Kansas, Mr. –
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