Military budgets $57 billion to fix bases and ‘substandard’ barracks
The Pentagon’s proposed $1.5 trillion budget for next fiscal year includes funding to fix longstanding problems with barracks, defense officials told reporters on Tuesday.
The budget calls for spending $57 billion on U.S. military bases and other facilities, of which a “major portion” would go toward “critical updates” identified by the Pentagon’s barracks task force established by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Space Force Lt. Gen. Steven P. Whitney, director of force structure, resource, and assessment for the Joint Staff, said at a Pentagon news briefing.
“The investments in this budget will fix all substandard barracks and eliminate barracks that have been deemed poor or failing,” Whitney told reporters. “There’s an additional investment to improve family housing, with a major portion of this investment targeted at our government-owned housing facilities.”
The budget includes $10.2 billion for new barracks; $8.8 billion for improvements, such as heating and air conditioning repairs, plumbing fixes, and mold remediation; and $2.5 billion on preventative maintenance, according to the Pentagon’s budget presentation. Another $4.4 billion would go toward family housing.
The proposal for the upcoming fiscal year’s budget represents a marked increase in funding for the barracks. For the 2026 fiscal year’s budget, the Defense Department requested $7.2 billion to improve barracks, according to budget documents. That breaks down to $1.2 billion for new construction and $6 billion for facilities sustainment, restoration, and modernization.
The goal to fix “all substandard barracks” is a lofty one. The U.S. military as a whole has long struggled to provide enlisted troops with clean and safe housing. In the past, money for barracks’ upkeep has been diverted to other projects deemed more pressing, a Marine Corps official told Task & Purpose in 2025.
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A 2023 Government Accountability Office report identified numerous problems with barracks on 10 military installations, ranging from mold to infestations of cockroaches, bed bugs, rodents, and issues with sewage as well as water quality.
Hegseth announced in December that the Pentagon would immediately invest $400 million to improve dilapidated barracks, and another $800 million would be spent on “critical” renovations.
The Pentagon also recently required all military services to meet the same standards for barracks and other unaccompanied housing that are meant to replace previous “inconsistent” guidelines among the military branches, according to the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Housing.
The Pentagon has compiled a list of barracks in failing conditions, which was used in calculating the fiscal year 2027 proposed budget, said Jules “Jay” W. Hurst III, who is performing the duties of the Pentagon’s comptroller. ”If they were on the list, then we’re going to remediate them.”
In addition to paying for barracks repairs, the proposed defense budget for fiscal year 2027 also includes funding to continue increasing the overall size of the U.S. military, Hurst said.
The move comes after this fiscal year’s National Defense Authorization Act funded an increase of more than 26,000 active duty service members.
Under the proposed budget for the next fiscal year, the military would add another 44,000 service members, Hurst told reporters on Tuesday.
”This growth will provide the manpower needed to employ new capabilities, and it will improve readiness and quality of life by ensuring units are properly staffed for the missions we task them with,” Hurst said.
UPDATE: 4.21.2026; This article was updated after publication with specifics on what portion of the budget for base repairs and improvements would be allocated to barracks fixes.