Service members would receive a 1.8-percent hike in basic pay on Jan. 1, under the version of the 2015 defense-spending bill released by the House of Representatives May 5. The proposed pay raise contrasts with the Obama administration’s request for a 1-percent increase next year. The House bill also rejects the Obama administration’s plan to add copayments to TRICARE health-care coverage, and trim housing allowances and commissary benefits. In total, the measure calls for $521.3 billion for national-defense spending and an additional $79.4 billion for overseas contingency operations, the latter largely to fund the continuing mission in Afghanistan. The Republican-controlled House also rejects Pentagon requests for another round of base realignment and closure (BRAC), “at a time when the final size of the military and the structure needed to support it is still in flux,” according to a statement by the House Armed Services Committee outlining the bill’s provisions. Other provisions would expand protection for service members who are victims of sexual assault, and provide $45.3 million for mental-health efforts to combat the rash of suicides plaguing the ranks.