Download or read book Costs of Military Pay and Benefits in the Defense Budget written by Matthew S. Goldberg and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 46 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For fiscal year 2013, the Department of Defense (DoD) requested about $150 billion to fund the pay and benefits of current and retired members of the military. That amount is more than one-quarter of DoD's total base budget request (the request for all funding other than for military operations in Afghanistan and related activities). Of DoD's $150 billion request for compensation in 2013, more than $90 billion would go to basic pay, food and housing allowances, bonuses, and various types of special pay. Another $16 billion would go to accrual payments that account for the future pensions of current service members who will retire from the military (generally after at least 20 years of service). The remainder of DoD's request for compensation in 2013, roughly $40 billion, would cover health benefits.