The Armed Services Committee inserted language in Section 604 of its 2016 National Defense Authorization Act bill that seeks to end dual Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) for military couples by only allowing one of the two spouses to receive it. This bill DISCRIMINATES AGAINST WOMEN in the military because it would only allow the higher ranking service member to receive BAH and, on average, men tend to outrank their female military spouses. Penalizing female service members' right to marry another service member will both negatively affect morale and the retention of thousands of highly qualified female service members.
Additionally, the same bill states that single service members who choose to live with another service member will see a 25% reduction in BAH.