Overview
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed a $2.6 billion disbursement to eligible personnel as a Basic Allowance for Housing supplement.
- Eligibility covers active-duty service members in pay grades O-6 and below as of Nov. 30, 2025, and reservists on active orders of 31 days or more by that date.
- Roughly 1.28 million active-duty troops and 174,000 reserve members will receive the payment, totaling about 1.45 million recipients.
- The payment is federally non-taxable as a housing allowance and was scheduled as a separate out-of-cycle disbursement by about Dec. 20.
- While the president linked the checks to tariff revenue, officials and reporting say the money comes from $2.9 billion Congress set aside in the One Big Beautiful Bill, with tariff receipts running below earlier White House projections.