24 U.S.C. § 414 — Fees paid by residents

(a) Monthly fees The person in charge of each Armed Forces Retirement Home facility (the Administrator) must collect a monthly fee from every resident who lives there. (b) Deposit of fees The Administrator must put the fees collected under (a) into the Armed Forces Retirement Home Trust Fund. (c) Fixing fees (1) The Chief Operating Officer sets the fee amounts, but only with the Secretary of Defense's approval. The Chief Operating Officer can change the fees over time. Any change must be based on how much money the Retirement Home needs and how much residents can afford to pay. A fee change cannot start until 120 days after the Secretary of Defense tells the Senate and House Armed Services Committees about it. (2)(A) The fee is set as a percentage of a resident's monthly income and monthly payments, including any payments from the federal government. This percentage must be the same at every facility. The Secretary of Defense can adjust the percentage if the Secretary decides that's appropriate. (B) For a resident who qualifies under section 412(a)(5) of this title, the resident's counted monthly income and payments cannot be figured as less than the retirement pay the resident would get for equivalent active duty service, as the Chief Operating Officer determines it. The Chief Operating Officer can allow an exception to this floor because of a resident's compelling personal circumstances. (3) There is a cap on the maximum monthly fee. Each January 1, this cap goes up by the same percentage that military retired pay and retainer pay went up the previous December 1 under section 1401a(b) of title 10 — ignoring paragraph (3) of that subsection. (4) When a facility admits a resident accepted under section 412(a)(5) of this title, the Administrator may charge that resident a fee upon admission. This fee equals the deductions that were in effect under section 1007(i)(1) of title 37, for each year of the resident's service as counted under chapter 1223 of title 10. The Administrator deposits this admission fee in the Armed Forces Retirement Home Trust Fund too.