Report on the Calculation of the Basic Allowance for Housing, Basic Allowance for Subsistence, and Cost-of-Living Allowances

The director of the 14th Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation asked CNA to review statutory requirements and methodologies used to calculate the Basic Allowance for Subsistence (BAS) and Cost of Living Allowances (COLAs). Specific research questions related to BAS included how often it should be calculated, whether it should vary by geographic area, and how much it would cost to extend BAS to servicemembers’ dependents as a way of fighting food insecurity. As a follow-up to a report released earlier in this study, which found that the Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) was sufficient overall but perceived as inadequately transparent or predictable, we were also asked to develop several courses of action (COAs) to reform BAH.