A key House committee is quietly backing a 2.3 percent military pay raise next year, a full percentage point higher than what the Pentagon requested.
But the House Armed Services Committee appears intent on not making a big deal about it — and the lack of strong supporting language could leave troops' paychecks lighter.
Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, committee chairman, said his committee's draft of the 2016 defense authorization bill will not include any language regarding the military pay raise.
Instead, the committee will tacitly abide by a law on the books for years that ties the military raise to average increases in private-sector wages.
That would result in a 2.3 percent pay hike effective Jan. 1 if the White House doesn't intervene. But President Obama's budget request calls for a smaller 1.3 percent pay raise — and he has authority to set the final figure if Congress doesn't specifically mandate something different.
Last year, the House also passed its defense authorization bill without any pay raise language, and the Senate backed Obama's lower proposed raise. The end result: Troops got a raise that was half a percentage point below the increase in average civilian pay.
For an E-4 with three years of service, the difference between a raise of 1.3 percent and 2.3 percent totals about $268 a year. For an O-4 with 12 years, it's about $838.
Outside advocates have lamented the Pentagon's trims to pay hikes as lost money for troops, since their pay won't keep pace with their civilian counterparts or the rate of inflation.
But Pentagon officials have argued the smaller pay raises are needed to keep training and modernization accounts solvent, arguing that poorly equipped and prepared service members are more of a danger than lesser-paid ones.
The House committee's full draft of its version of the fiscal 2016 defense authorization bill is due out Wednesday. Senate and House appropriators are expected to weigh in on their military pay raise preferences in coming months.
Leo covers Congress, Veterans Affairs and the White House for Military Times. He has covered Washington, D.C. since 2004, focusing on military personnel and veterans policies. His work has earned numerous honors, including a 2009 Polk award, a 2010 National Headliner Award, the IAVA Leadership in Journalism award and the VFW News Media award.
