'Restore Real Value': House Panel Wants to Give Junior Enlisted Troops 15% Pay Raise

The military's most junior service members should get a 15% hike in their base pay in order to "restore real value" to military pay, a key bipartisan congressional panel formed to improve the lives of troops said Thursday.

The recommendation on boosting paychecks is part of the final report from the House Armed Services Committee's military quality-of-life panel, a group of Republican and Democratic lawmakers that spent months analyzing service members' pay, housing, health care, child care and spouse employment.

The panel hopes to use the report to push improvements for troops this year. It also calls for a raft of other changes: increased allowances for housing and food insecurity; fully funded barracks renovations; exploring barracks privatization; offering more competitive pay for child care workers; evaluating health care access standards; and making permanent a pilot program for fellowships for military spouses, among other recommendations.