Senate Guard Caucus Leaders Leahy And Bond:
Guard And Reserve Commission’s Recommendations
Would Muffle National Guard’s Voice In Pentagon Decision Making
WASHINGTON (Thursday, Jan. 31) -- Several recommendations in the
final report of the National Guard and Reserve Commission released
Thursday, if implemented, would undermine the National Guard and
hamper the Defense Department’s ability to respond to domestic
emergencies, according to the leaders of the 87-member Senate
National Guard Caucus.
National Guard Caucus Co-Chairs Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and
Senator Kit Bond (R-Mo.) say the Commission’s Guard recommendations
“do not give due credit to the superb performance, missions and
capabilities of the National Guard.” The Commission recommends that
the top service officers – the Directors -- of the Army and Air
National Guard be removed from the National Guard Bureau and serve
directly under the Chiefs of Staff of the Army and Air Force,
respectively. Bond and Leahy say that would undermine the National
Guard’s ability to balance its dual missions -- serving as the
nation’s primary operational military reserve, and as the military
first responders for emergencies at home. Commission member Major
General Gordon Stump, U.S. Air National Guard (Retired), Adjutant
General of the State of Michigan from 1991 to 2003 and a past
president of the National Guard Association of the United States,
dissented from that Commission finding.
The panel also suggested that requirements for military equipment
needed for emergency situations should be set by the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS), rather than by the Guard itself. Leahy and
Bond say that would give the already overwhelmed DHS a new
responsibility beyond its capacity and expertise. It would also
foster confusion in military budgeting and sow unnecessary
bureaucratic tension, while doing little to improve or streamline
equipment needs during domestic emergencies.
Earlier this week, the President signed into law the Fiscal Year
2008 Defense Authorization Bill, which was cosponsored by a vast
majority of senators. The defense policy bill includes several key
provisions of the Leahy-Bond National Guard Empowerment Act to give
the Guard more bureaucratic muscle in decisions affecting the
Guard’s equipment, missions and staffing. The Guard Empowerment
reforms also will give the Guard a direct voice in homeland defense
decisions in which the Guard has experience. On behalf of the
National Guard Caucus, Senators Leahy and Bond intend to introduce a
follow-on Guard Empowerment bill to strengthen the Guard further.
Leahy said: “The Guard and Reserve Commission has pointed out some
of the general issues that the National Guard Caucus has spotlighted
over the years. That is why it is so puzzling that the Commission
has disconnected its findings from its recommendations. The
Commission calls for a retreat from the newly enacted Guard
Empowerment reforms. Its Guard recommendations are unjustified,
counterproductive, and corrosive to effective decision making. The
Commission seems to have become entangled in the old bureaucratic
cobwebs that the Guard Caucus and the Empowerment Reforms have now
begun to clear away. The half-million men and women of the National
Guard have never let the country down. They are the indispensable
element in helping the military support civilian authorities in
responding to emergencies here at home. We should be helping the
Guard fill these missions, instead of hindering them.”
“While this report recognizes some of the challenges unique to the
Guard, much of it is not only short-sighted but flat-out wrong. If
enacted, some of these recommendations would undercut the important
victories we have earned to empower the Guard,” said Bond. “The
Guard is critical to protecting us here at home and also to our
success in the war on terror and we cannot let ill-conceived
recommendations threaten these important missions.”
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