President Donald Trump’s “Warrior Dividend” bonus for service members, which he suggested would be funded by tariff revenue, is actually a one-time basic allowance for housing stipend already approved by Congress, according to a senior administration official.

The $1,776 bonus payment Trump announced while addressing the nation Wednesday night will be paid using funds Congress appropriated to the Defense Department in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which was passed into law in July, to supplement the basic allowance for housing.

Congress appropriated $2.9 billion to supplement the basic allowance for housing, and the Pentagon will disburse $2.6 billion of that funding as a one-time payment to roughly 1.28 million active-duty service members and 174,000 Reserve Component members.

“The Secretary of War directed the department to use some of the Basic Allowance for Housing funds to provide a one-time payment to service members during this holiday season to help improve their housing and quality of life,” a DoD official told Federal News Network. 

Active-duty service members in pay grades O-6 and below are eligible for the payment, along with National Guard and Reserve members in the same grades who were on active-duty orders of 31 days or more as of Nov. 30.

This payment will be made outside of the regular pay cycle by Dec. 20. 

The senior administration official told Federal News Network the Defense Department service members who are not currently receiving housing allowances are also eligible to receive the bonus.

The basic allowance for housing funding in the Big Beautiful Bill was originally intended to address rising housing costs and reduce service members’ out-of-pocket housing expenses.

Trump suggested during his speech that the bonuses would be funded by excess tariff revenues.

“We made a lot more money than anybody thought because of tariffs, and the bill helped us along. Nobody deserves it more than our military, and I say congratulations,” Trump said.

The White House needs congressional approval to redirect tariff revenue. Trump has previously floated the idea of sending $2,000 checks to millions of Americans using tariff revenue, but Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the move would require congressional authorization.

“We need legislation for that,” Bessent said on Nov. 16.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the payment would be tax-free and framed it as part of the department’s effort to improve quality of life for military families.

“This has never happened before … This warrior dividend serves as yet another example of how the War Department is working to improve the quality of life for our military personnel and their families. I can think of no better Americans to receive this check right before Christmas, whether it’s for pay, housing, … all elements of what we’re doing are to rebuild our military,” Hegseth said on social media platform X. “To the American warrior, President Trump and I and the entire war department, we have your back.”

The housing stipend is expected to reach service members’ accounts about a week before they receive a 3.8% pay raise authorized in the fiscal 2026 defense policy bill the Senate approved on Wednesday.

If you would like to contact this reporter about recent changes in the federal government, please email anastasia.obis@federalnewsnetwork.com or reach out on Signal at (301) 830-2747.

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Govstream.ai, a Seattle-area startup building AI-native permitting tools for local governments, raised $3.6 million in funding, the company announced Thursday.

The seed round was led by Menlo Park, Calif.-based 47th Street Partners, with participation from Nellore Capital of Palo Alto, Calif., Seattle-based Ascend, and angel investors including Socrata founder Kevin Merritt and First Due co-founder and CEO Andreas Huber.

Govstream.ai’s platform sits on top of the systems cities already use and acts as a conversational “copilot” for permit techs, planners, and reviewers. The company says the technology answers questions, checks documents, compares plan sets, and helps move applications through review faster.

The first public deployment is with the City of Bellevue, where Govstream.ai’s smart assistant has been helping Development Services staff with internal permitting and zoning questions since this summer.

“Cities are under intense pressure to add housing, support small businesses, and keep development sustainable, all while working inside permitting systems that were never really rethought for this moment,” said Safouen Rabah, founder and CEO of Govstream.ai.

In Washington, for example, state projections show that roughly 1.1 million additional homes will be needed by 2044 to keep up with population growth, and about 650,000 of those will need to be affordable for low-income households.

Rabah said permitting has been digitized in pieces but not truly modernized end to end. AI can reason over hundreds of pages of plans and regulations and surface what matters.

“That’s how cities move more homes and critical infrastructure from ‘submitted’ to ‘approved’ without burning people out on either side of the counter,” Rabah said. “Every month of delay we eliminate reduces costs of a new housing unit by about $5,000 on average and makes more projects economically pencil out.”

In July, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell issued an executive order intended to speed the permitting process for housing and small businesses in the city, using AI software from Boston- and Chicago-based CivCheck to aid permit applicants and city reviewers. Other cities, including Los Angeles, Austin and Honolulu are using AI to improve their processes.

In Bellevue, Govstream.ai is targeting and seeing signs of results including:

• A roughly 30% reduction in the burden of routine inquiries, including fewer “Where do I start?” and “Do I need a permit for this?” calls and emails.
• Up to 50% fewer re-submittals by catching missing or incorrect items before an application is formally filed.
• Up to 2X faster starts to first review on many project types, because reviewers start with context instead of a 200-page PDF.

Beyond Bellevue, the startup is gearing up to deploy in additional U.S. cities. Rabah declined to share financial metrics, but said revenue is growing as Govstream.ai converts design partners into production deployments.

A veteran of government-tech companies including Socrata and Tyler Technologies, Rabah started Govstream.ai in July 2024. The company currently employs five people and the new funding will fuel growth to 10 to 12 people over the next 12 months with the addition of engineering and AI roles in the Seattle area.

Govstream was previously featured in GeekWire’s Startup Radar series.