STRICKLAND WARNS HOUSING COSTS ARE OUTPACING MILITARY ALLOWANCE

Washington D.C. - On Thursday, April 16, 2026, Congresswoman Strickland questioned Lieutenant General Brian Eifler on the Basic Allowance for Housing's (BAH) ability to keep pace with rising housing costs, and questioned Lieutenant General Caroline Miller on how these rising housing costs will impact military readiness. Strickland's remarks are transcribed below, and can be viewed here:

Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland: Thank you Chairman Fallon and Ranking Member Houlahan and thank you to our witnesses for being here today and your continued service to our nation.

This hearing comes at a very important time for the Force. And after several challenging years, the services have made tangible progress in stabilizing recruiting and improving quality of life for servicemembers. You professionalize recruiting and you're meeting people where they are, and the results are showing, so thank you for that.

At the same time, I represent Joint Base Lewis-McChord, which as you know in Washington state is not a low-cost region. 70 percent of those who serve live off-post, and housing costs are rising, as are many other costs. And we're discussing a defense budget approaching approximately 1.5 trillion dollars, yet we have to ask, are we keeping pace with the rising cost of housing?

In fact, the Department of Defense is requesting approximately 777 million dollars less for total Basic Allowance for Housing in 2027 compared to 2026 even as housing costs continue to rise. And I want to be clear. I recognize that every one of you, you have to make choices. You get a finite budget. You do the best you can.

So, I want to start with General Eifler. In my district where JBLM is located, soldiers and families are facing rising housing costs. And I understand that you don't build the budget, but if the Basic Allowance for Housing doesn't keep up with costs, do you agree that many soldiers and their families will experience a reduction in their real compensation?

Lieutenant General Brian Eifler: Yeah thanks, Congresswoman.

I do think one - I share your concern; I share your passion to fix this. I think we're always in competition. It seems every time we raise the rates, the communities raise the rates for things. And I think we work with the Department because I know they have a task force to sort of figure this out.

How do we slow down this, you know, back and forth? And I think that's a real concern we've got to continue to work on. The budgets, you know like you said, they're getting bigger, but we continue to, you know, need more. And doing more with less is not a really good answer for our soldiers and families but that's what we're stuck with. Especially as you talked about, in the regions where the cost of living is already high. So that's a challenge we are definitely trying to address.

Strickland: Can you tell me which populations you believe are most at risk from this? Is it junior enlisted families or those just stationed in high-cost areas?

Eifler: I think it's all the above. I think if whether you're a single officer, or a young officer with a family, or you're a young enlisted with a family and you're off post. It's tremendously more difficult. But I think they all have varied levels of challenges. And this is not just true in Washington. There's other areas as well. And that's something that we always as leaders we have to stay engaged on.

It's not their, you know, 'It's private. It's not none of your business.' It is your business. This is the military, and we need to make sure we're not putting people in places and in regions where they can't afford to do that, and I think it is our duty to try to make sure we provide for everything they need.

Strickland: Alright, thank you General.

General Miller - at JBLM, airmen and their families are facing the same rising housing costs, obviously. What impact do you think this has on family stability and ultimate readiness of our airmen at installations like JBLM and across the Force.

Lieutenant General Caroline Miller: Well financial security is a big concern for everybody, because if you have to worry about your finances, childcare or whatever it is, infrastructure, you can't be focused on the mission. And so, we take a lot of, we do a lot of work and analysis on how much people are making. We've got the basic needs assessment that we put out there and we've, you know, we make sure that airmen are at the appropriate levels.

The challenges, to your point ma'am, is that the prices just continually go up, and they go up rapidly. I mean this is a perfect example of just the rising costs. I mean you look at gas prices one day and the next day. I mean they're over 5 dollars here. It's crazy. And so, we're very concerned with that. I do expect that it's going to negatively impact if we can't make sure that we can compensate our airmen and all of our servicemembers appropriately.

Strickland: Do you think this is affecting retention?

Miller: It's hard to make that connection right now because our retention is unbelievably high. I mean we're sitting over 90 percent at our retention. I think that as the year and then the next year go on, subsequent years, we'll have to make sure that we continue to watch that and see if that's a direct link.

Strickland: Great, thank you. And again, you know we're having a discussion about dramatically increasing the defense budget, and sometimes when I talk with Ranking Member Smith we focus on the actual top line number, but it really has to be a conversation about how are we deploying the numbers, the dollars that we have. And, we have to focus on quality of life for our members. I yield back, Mr. Chair.