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Guard advocates seek more changes

Leaders of the House and Senate caucuses on National Guard issues continue to press for organizational changes in the Pentagon, to include giving the chief of the National Guard Bureau a seat on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The Bush administration has steadfastly opposed that idea, and it also was not supported by the independent Commission on the National Guard and Reserve, which issued a report recommending changes in reserve component organization late last year.

That does not deter supporters of the idea, however. As a result of their persistence, the Defense Department already is in the process of elevating the National Guard Bureau’s position and status within the Pentagon policymaking and budgeting hierarchy.

But Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Christopher “Kit” Bond, R-Mo., and Reps. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., and Tom Davis, R-Va., said Thursday that they want more.

The four have introduced legislation in the House and Senate aimed specifically at homeland defense and the Guard’s ability to respond in support of domestic disasters or to help law enforcement.

The Senate bill is S 2760. The House bill is HR 5603.

The four lawmakers so far have been successful in getting their National Guard bills attached to the annual defense budget rather than trying to pass them as separate pieces of legislation. For example, the National Guard Empowerment Act that became law in January was part of the 2008 Defense Authorization Act.

The 2009 version of the defense policy bill is expected to begin taking shape in late April, when the National Guard caucuses in Congress could have a chance to again attach their initiatives to the larger bill as “riders.”

While there are many parts to the proposal, the one certain to get the most attention calls for making the National Guard chief a member of the Joint Chiefs, an issue the National Guard Caucus has been pressing for years. So far, supporters of that idea have succeeded only in getting the position of National Guard Bureau chief elevated from three- to four-star status, and giving that officer a formal role in providing advice to senior military leaders.

A potentially more controversial part of their new bill would ensure state governors maintained tactical control over federalized Guard forces in national emergencies. This is the newest salvo in a battle over whether Guard units should be under federal control when mobilized under federal law.