Yes, this was Congress’ doing. Per the article at Army Times:
“Under the new policy, troops will be paid only for the actual days they spend in the danger pay location, defense officials said Thursday.
Under the previous policy, troops who spent any portion of the month in a danger pay location received danger pay for the entire month.
The proration amounts to $7.50 per day. So, for example, if a service member spends only 7 days of the month in Afghanistan, he or she will have only $52.50 in Imminent Danger Pay added to their paycheck.
Exceptions will be made for troops who are “exposed to a hostile fire incident”, regardless of location. They will receive the full monthly amount of $225.
The change was mandated by Congress as a part of the 2012 budget, and the Pentagon announced the implementation of the new rules on Thursday.”
It would be interesting to know, though I’m not sure we could ever find out, which azzholes in which specific congressional staffs pushed this. I’d like to think that it would be all derived from the Left but often there are bastards on the GOP side as well...usually the ‘in the closet types’ who simply don’t like the military.