Service members would receive a 3.6% across-the-board pay raise under the Senate Armed Services Committee’s fiscal 2027 defense policy bill released Tuesday, setting up a clash with House lawmakers who proposed a larger salary boost for troops in their version of the bill.

The House Armed Services Committee backed the Trump administration’s proposed tiered pay raises for troops — under the committee’s authorization bill, service members would see their salaries increase by 5% to 7%, depending on their rank. 

Junior enlisted service members would receive the largest increase under the House’s proposed legislation — troops at the ranks of E-5 and below would receive a 7% pay raise.  More senior enlisted members and officers through the rank of O-3 would see a 6% increase, while officers in the ranks of O-4 and higher would receive a 5% raise. 

The Senate’s support for a flat 3.6% military pay raise could complicate the White House’s effort to implement tiered pay increases, a proposal that was also backed by House appropriators. 

Last year’s Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation — the Defense Department’s comprehensive look at the military compensation system — warned that pay compression can weaken incentives for promotion and higher performance. 

“Pay compression matters because it can affect performance incentives. In the military, promotions are the primary means by which the services financially reward superior performance, especially beginning with promotion to E-5. Eliminating pay increases in the lower grades weakens incentives to become a high performer, or to perform above the minimum required to remain in the military,” the review reads.

The Senate similarly rejected a larger pay raise in 2024, when the House proposed a 19.5% increase for junior enlisted troops. The final fiscal 2025 compromise bill approved a cumulative 14.5% pay raise for those service members. 

The Senate legislation also seeks to boost a number of military bonuses and incentive pays. 

Under the bill, eligible aviators could receive up to $60,000 in annual bonuses, up from the current maximum of $50,000. 

The bill would increase the maximum bonus available to senior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps cadets and midshipmen from $5,000 to $15,000 and give the military services greater flexibility to determine which training requirements qualify them for the incentive. 

The measure would also raise the current monthly caps on hostile fire pay from $450 to $600 per month and imminent danger pay from $275 to $400 per month. Hostile fire pay is a monthly allowance for troops who are exposed to hostile fire, while imminent danger pay is provided to troops serving in areas where they could face “threat of physical harm or imminent danger based on civil insurrection, civil war, terrorism or wartime conditions.”

Another provision would authorize board certification incentive pay for certain veterinary comparative medicine officers who hold a comparable qualifying doctoral degree, as determined by the service secretary. 

The measure would allow certain military veterinary officers who hold qualifying Ph.D. degrees to receive incentive pay currently only reserved for board-certified officers. 

In addition, the Senate’s version of the bill extends the Pentagon’s authority to adjust housing allowance rates in certain areas. Meanwhile, the House proposed removing basic allowance for housing from income calculations for consideration for the basic needs allowance. The House tried to reform the basic needs allowance in the 2026 defense policy bill, but the proposal was ultimately stripped from the final measure. 

The committee’s authorization bill authorizes $1.15 trillion in spending, with most Democrats opposing the measure. The bill is now headed to the Senate floor. 

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