this was just a cop out for the outrage of soldiers who are already underpaid as it is had to buy their own equipment. and they didn't even get that much back when you break it down.

most soldiers were spending anywhere from 3-5 thousand on armor alone, and that wasn't all they were buying. They were also buying ammunition (they didn't have a steady supply of armor piercing from what I've heard). they where buying things to help them out with the heat and such, other electronic gadgets they could use to help them out with their mission. One such gadget are civilian GPS trackers which are smaller and more versatile than military one who run on some kind of military objects while civilian models run on double As and such (oh that's another thing they buy in bulk). they also buy sidearms for raids and such, the fully automatic glocks were a big hit for raids. And these are all basic MILITARY necessities which should have been provided by the military. What they buy for their down time doesn’t even come into account here (DVDs, music players, certain foods and such….)

this was all just a show and tell legislature. The only good thing to come out of this is that I believe it’s company commanders or soothing (not sure have to look this up further) are getting a certain amount of “petty’ funding to use at their discretion for their soldiers, this is suppose to go towards buying non-military issue equipment that could aid them in their missions at their discretion. But this money also goes towards Bribe money while they are out on the field and such.