Support grows in Congress for Guard seat on JCS - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Support grows in Congress for Guard seat on JCS

Sixty-one senators — more than enough to overcome any parliamentary roadblock — are now cosponsors of legislation that would give the National Guard a seat on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

For all its political clout, however, the co-sponsorship of the newest version of the National Guard Empowerment Act doesn’t mean much unless the bill comes to the Senate floor for a vote.

A vote could happen if the Senate ever takes up the 2012 defense authorization bill, which passed the Senate Armed Services Committee in June. But Senate leaders have not scheduled any time for that bill to be considered, so the support for the Guard measure remains mostly symbolic for the moment.

Under Senate rules, it takes a majority to pass a bill or amendment, but it would take 60 votes to overcome a filibuster if someone tries to delay a vote. The 61 cosponsors are enough to stop a filibuster.

The House included similar language in its version of the defense bill approved in May, meaning the strong support in the Senate would be enough to make this elevation of status likely to be part of any final defense bill sent to President Obama.

Although the Defense Department opposes creating another seat on the Joint Chiefs for the National Guard, Obama endorsed the idea during his 2008 presidential campaign, giving the Guard community hope it would be approved over objections from senior Pentagon officials.

The bill, S 1025, is called the National Guard Empowerment and State-National Defense Integration Act of 2011.

Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., cochairmen of the Senate National Guard Caucus, are chief sponsors of the bill. In a statement, Leahy said the Guard has become a “front line, 21st-century force” that is “trapped in a 20th-century Pentagon bureaucracy.”

Graham, a current member of the Air Force Reserve, said: “We need to ensure the Guard and reserves have a seat at the table when the important decisions affecting our national security are made.”

The National Guard Association of the United States has been pushing for years for the change, arguing the Guard is left out of critical policy and budget discussions and also lacks direct access to the president, defense secretary and homeland security secretary.

“Without the Guard at the table, our nation’s civilian leaders don’t have unfiltered information on Guard capabilities and cost-effectiveness, nor do they have direct access to the Guard’s domestic-response expertise.” said retired Maj. Gen. Gus Hargett Jr., the former Tennessee adjutant general who is now president of NGAUS.

“Twenty years ago, this might not have been that important,” Hargett said. “Right now, it’s critical.”