{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://strickland.house.gov/2021/12/17/media-press-releases-strickland-and-young-lead-bipartisan-letter-raise-base-pay-service-members/", "Strickland and Young Lead Bipartisan Letter to Raise Base Pay for Service Members", "2021-12-17", "2021", "2021-12", "Democrat", "House", "WA", "Marilyn Strickland", "S001159", "strickland.house.gov", "strickland", "https://strickland.house.gov/category/press_release/", "scraper", "Olympia, WA\u2014Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland (WA-10), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, and Congressman Don Young (AK-At Large) led 12 Members of Congress on a bipartisan letter urging the Appropriations Committee to raise the base pay for service members. The current base pay doesn\u2019t provide adequate support for service members or reflect their contributions to our country. While military pay is raised incrementally every year, it is imperative that Congress re-asses and raise base pay to ensure that the military remains a competitive place to serve. Strickland and Young were joined in sending the letter by Representatives Andr\u00e9 D. Carson (IN-7), Scott DesJarlais (TN-04), Veronica Escobar (TX-16), Jared Golden (ME-02), Jahana Hayes (CT-05), Sara Jacobs (CA-53), Ro Khanna (CA-17), James P. McGovern (MA-02), Kim Schrier, M. D. (WA-08), Gwen Moore (WI-04, Marc Veasey (TX-33), Chris Pappas (NH-1).The letter is attached and below.\n\n\u201cIn order for our military to truly be the best in the world, we must ensure that our service members are paid fairly,\u201d said Congresswoman Strickland. \u201cI\u2019ve heard heart-wrenching stories from service members in my district who are struggling to find affordable housing or put food on the table for their families. I\u2019m urging Congress to raise base pay now because our servicemembers and their families deserve our help to meet their basic needs. It\u2019s the right thing to do for the people who keep us safe and our nation secure.\u201d\n\n\u201cOur brave servicemembers put their lives on the line for our nation. As a country, we should be empowering them to do their vital jobs, but too many of our heroes struggle to make ends meet. I am proud to join my friend, Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland, on this effort to ensure our servicemembers have a salary floor, which is especially crucial for junior enlisted soldiers. Military service serves as a viable career path for many young Americans. However, without a basic pay threshold, we hurt recruitment efforts and put our national security at risk. I am calling on the Appropriations Committee to stand by our fighting men and women by raising their base pay. This needed change will help our nation\u2019s military recruit top talent and prevent financial hardship that continues to impact too many military families,\u201d said Congressman Don Young.\n\nThe full letter text can be found below.\n\nDecember 17, 2021\n\nChair Rosa L. DeLauro\n\nHouse Committee on Appropriations\n\nH-307, The Capitol\n\nWashington, DC 20515\n\nRanking Member Kay Granger\n\nHouse Committee on Appropriations\n\n1036 Longworth House Office Building\n\nWashington, DC 20515\n\nChair Betty McCollum\n\nHouse Committee on Appropriations\n\nDefense Subcommittee\n\nH-405 The Capitol\n\nWashington, DC 20515\n\nRanking Member Ken Calvert\n\nHouse Committee on Appropriations\n\nDefense Subcommittee\n\n1036 Longworth House Office Building\n\nWashington, DC 20515\n\nDear Chairs DeLauro and McCollum and Ranking Members Granger and Calvert,\n\nAs you develop the Fiscal Year 2023 appropriations bills, we strongly urge you to reassess compensation for service members and set base pay to the equivalent of $15.00 an hour or $31,200.00 a year for new or current service members below this threshold. This pay floor is crucial for junior enlisted service members who are struggling to make ends meet.\n\nThe military is a compelling career path for many young Americans \u2013 it instills strong values, develops skills, creates robust personal networks, and provides excellent benefits. However, military pay increasingly lags behind other fields. As wages and salaries increase across many industries economy-wide, the military is now falling behind in the competition for quality recruits\u2014in large part to the base pay issue. As the number of qualified and willing people to serve continues to diminish, the ability of our military to recruit top talent is starting to become a national security issue. Congress must address this pay issue now before it becomes a more significant area of concern.\n\nAdditionally, we have heard from countless junior enlisted service members (E-1 to E-4) and their families about the financial difficulties they are experiencing, from finding affordable housing to the many families facing food insecurity. It is disappointing that service members often receive advice when they experience financial difficulties is to go to counseling instead of commanders and senior leadership recognizing that there is a problem. While there have been some encouraging steps to improve the quality of benefits and entitlements for the service members, base pay continues to lag.\n\nSome will argue that Regular Military Compensation (RMC), the sum of base pay, basic allowance for housing (BAH), basic allowance for subsistence (BAS), and the federal income tax advantage from tax-free allowances, is the approximate amount of an equivalent salary in the civilian sector. However, not everyone receives full BAH or BAS, which results in many service members having wildly different discretionary incomes.\n\nAn E-1 with less than two years of service makes around $1,785.00 per month or roughly $21,420.00 a year pre-tax. It takes at least four years of service and achieving the rank of E-4 to make at least $2,713.50 per month or approximately $32,562.00 annualized pre-tax. Service members will only achieve this if they decide to stay longer than the standard four-year contract. Furthermore, service members are frequently ordered to move, which causes an additional financial burden on families due to spousal unemployment and lack of licensure reciprocity among states. As a result, a service member cannot support a family of two, three, or even four on $20,000.00 a year without depending on other forms of government assistance.\n\nAdditionally, it is time to recognize that service members often do not work the standard 40-hour work schedule and may sometimes have a 70-hour week. In deployments away from home, the hours can rise to at least a 12-hour shift, seven days a week. We need to recognize that and work to ensure that their compensation reflects those efforts.\n\nPay plays a vital role in retaining a ready force. One way to ensure service members and their families remain prepared is to receive the proper entitlement benefits. Service members and their families make an enormous sacrifice for our country, and inadequate compensation should not be one of these sacrifices.\n\nWe look forward to hearing from the Committee as you develop the FY23 appropriations bills and work to ensure that service members can provide for their families.\n\nSincerely,\n\nMarilyn Strickland\n\nMember of Congress\n\nDon Young\n\nMember of Congress\n\nU.S. Representative Marilyn Strickland serves on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and is the only African-American woman who serves on the House Armed Services Committee. She is a member of the New Democrat Coalition, is one of the first Korean-American women elected to Congress and is the first African-American elected to represent the Pacific Northwest at the federal level.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://strickland.house.gov/2021/12/17/media-press-releases-strickland-and-young-lead-bipartisan-letter-raise-base-pay-service-members/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 4.194352775812149, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}