The House passed their version of a continuing resolution (CR) that will provide funding to keep the government operating through September 2011. If it makes it through the Senate and is signed by the President, the bill, dubbed the FY2011 Year Long Funding Act, would provide $513 billion in Defense spending, $4.9 billion more than the 2010 levels. But the biggest news for most troops is that the House voted to freeze Federal pay while giving the okay for the 1.4% military pay increase requested by the President. The house had previously proposed a 1.9% increase which seems highly unlikely at this point. In either case, the 2011 pay increase is likely to be less than half of last year's and is assured to be the smallest military pay raise since 1962.
The House's CR bill includes proposals to increase funding for Basic Allowance for Housing and Basic Allowance for Subsistence and $1.56 billion for TRICARE to address cost increases.
Read Tom Philpott's article: 1.4% Assured; 1.9% Unlikely.
