Senate Adds Leahy-Bond Amendment To Defense Bill
To Erase Housing Benefits Gap
For Active Duty Guard And Reserve

. . . Amendment Raises Housing Allowance

WASHINGTON (Thursday, Nov. 10) – The Senate this week approved an amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) that would effectively end a housing allowance formula that shortchanges active duty Guard members and Reservists.

The Leahy-Bond Amendment targets the so-called Basic Allowance of Housing II (B.A.H. II) program, which unfairly pays members of the National Guard and Reserve serving on active duty an average of $300 to $400 less per month than the allowance available to regular active duty troops carrying out similar duties.  The amendment, which would covers the nation’s 870,000-member Selected Reserve of the United States, mandates that reservists called to active duty receive the same monthly housing allowance as active duty members of the military.

The amendment, which Leahy and Bond originally introduced in April as the National Guard and Reserve Housing Equity Act of 2005 (S.938), has been endorsed by several major Reserve associations, including the National Guard Association of the United States, the Reserve Officers Association of the United States and the Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the United States.  It eliminates the discretion of the Office of the Secretary of Defense to set a lower housing allowance for reservists called to serve for 30 days or more.  Under current law, members of the National Guard maintaining private residences, called for active duty for periods of fewer than 140 days, receive a Basic Allowance of Housing II (BAH II).  The allowance has consistently been set at lower levels than the active duty housing allowance.

“The National Guard and Reserve are giving first-class efforts and getting first-class results that are consistently on par with the stellar performance of our entire military,” said Leahy.  “But lingering policies are giving our reservists only second-class benefits.   Senator Bond and I have worked long and hard to correct the unfair discrepancies in benefits between our active duty troops and the members of the National Guard and Reserves.  Hurricane Katrina showed how important our National Guard is to protecting our own soil.  This amendment offers merited and much-needed housing assistance to families that are making sacrifices of their own while these active duty soldiers who are giving their all to their country.”

“The National Guard is engaged on two major fronts, combating terrorism abroad while simultaneously providing critical military support to our communities in response to the unprecedented number of natural disasters that have occurred recently,” Bond said.  “Our Guard forces are on call 24/7 and have demonstrated clearly that they are willing to put service above self and country above all.  I am honored to work with my colleague and co-chair of the Guard Caucus, Senator Leahy, in eliminating the housing disparity between our Guard and active duty forces.”

The U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives will have to reconcile differences in their two versions of the Defense Authorization Bill through conference negotiations.  Because the Leahy-Bond amendment is identical to a provision in the House version, it will likely prove uncontroversial and remain in the final legislation. 

Leahy and Bond, the co-chairs of the Senate National Guard Caucus, have also championed other legislation that has helped to meet the needs of the Guard and Reserves.

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