Difficult Ascent

Expect another long, tough fight over the defense budget this year in Congress.

Digital Version

The battle lines are clear: The Republicans have slim control of the House. The Democrats have a similar margin in the Senate. The two chambers disagree on spending amounts and priorities. And lawmakers in both parties are willing to use the process to make points with their respective political bases in an election year.

This is the environment NGAUS encounters on Capitol Hill as the association appeals to lawmakers to find resources not included in the president’s budget request to improve National Guard training, equipment and benefits.

“We are seeing historically narrow margins right now, which I believe directly contributes to delays and acrimony on the Hill,” retired Col. Mike Hadley, the NGAUS vice president for government affairs, says of the 118th Congress. “The majority of Congress is also in an election cycle and will want to spend as much time in their states and districts running for reelection as possible.”

Adds Russ Read, the NGAUS legislative affairs manager for Air programs: “The thin majorities make it harder for the parties to push their specific goals, but we’ll continue to work with both sides and have our champions in both the left and the right, no matter what.”

These same thin majorities didn’t stop the association from being successful last year, even though lawmakers didn’t complete work on a defense spending plan until the middle of March, nearly six months into fiscal 2024.

Fiscal 2024 defense appropriations include $310 million for the Army Guard and $300 million for the Air Guard in the congressionally directed National Guard and Reserve Equipment Account. There are also funds above the president’s budget request for four CH-47 Chinook Block II helicopters, a record $140 million for Humvee modernization for the Army Guard and eight C-130J cargo planes for the Air Guard.

Additionally, the fiscal 2024 Military Construction Act also includes funds Congress added to the president’s original proposal. The act provides nearly $621 million, or more than $280 million above the request, for Army Guard projects. There is also nearly $296 million, or almost $117 million above the president’s proposal, for the Air Guard.

The association also scored some policy victories in the fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act. One will provide all birth mothers, spouses, partners and adoptive and foster parents with three months of excused absences from drill with retirement points.

Under the old Reserve Component Maternity Leave Program, only birth mothers were eligible for this benefit. All birth mothers, spouses, partners and adoptive and foster parents in the active component already enjoy three full months of maternity leave.

NGAUS legislative priorities this year for deliberations on fiscal 2025 defense legislation again aim to bring the Guard closer to parity with the active component on equipment and benefits.

The priorities are a product of a legislative resolutions process that begins in the 54 states, territories and the District of Columbia.

State and territory Guard associations develop the resolutions at their conferences. They are geared to the following year’s session of Congress, which deliberates on the next fiscal year’s defense bills.

We have historically narrow margins right now, which I believe directly contributes to delays and acrimony on the Hill.

—Col. Mike Hadley (Ret.), the NGAUS vice president for government affairs

Draft resolutions go to NGAUS in Washington, D.C., for staff review and input from the association’s issue-oriented task forces and NGB. They are then forwarded to the annual NGAUS conference for consideration by representatives of every state and territory. Those approved are included in a package subject to a final vote of conference delegates.

The approved package typically includes hundreds of items. The NGAUS legislative team derives its priorities by working with the association’s 13 task forces, which are panels of subject matter experts from the Guard nationwide appointed by the association’s chairman.

The legislative team then delivers the priorities to Capitol Hill. They and retired Maj. Gen. Francis M. McGinn, the association’s president, meet with lawmakers, their staffs and the professional staffs of key defense committees, such as the House and Senate armed services committees and the defense subcommittees of the House and Senate Appropriations committees.

Many of the priorities involve equipment. Obtaining better equipment via Congress is one of the reasons why militia officers founded NGAUS 146 years ago, and the association has been very successful in convincing Congress to find money to improve Guard hardware.

C-130Js are one example. Active-component Air Force C-130 units fly nothing but the latest variant of the venerable intra-theater cargo plane; however, the service has never included one J model for the Air Guard in a presidential budget request. Fortunately, NGAUS has been able to persuade Congress to add 66 to final defense appropriations bills in recent years.

But that’s not enough to replace all the Guard’s aging H models, which need extensive modernization. It’s much the same across the entire Air Guard fleet, which includes the oldest planes in the Air Force inventory.

The Army Guard faces similar challenges. The Guard’s combat divisions lack the same equipment as the active-component’s 10 divisions.

The disparity is a product of Army and Air Force budget processes that prioritize active units, sometimes at the expense of the Guard, says Marcy Weldin, the NGAUS deputy legislative director.

“The National Guard doesn’t have its own budget line,” Weldin says. “This is problematic because we have to ask permission to do certain things because the Air Force and Army hold the purse.”

Until that changes, NGAUS will continue working with Congress to help bolster Guard readiness.

The author can be reached at mark.hensch@ngaus.org.

---

2024 NGAUS Legislative Priorities

(For the deliberation of the fiscal 2025 defense authorization & appropriations acts)

Ensuring deployability, interoperability and sustainability with the active component through:

The Same Organization

● Future multi-domain battlefield interoperability, including:
■ Deployable and interoperable force structure that is validated and doctrinally consistent
■ Space National Guard as the primary combat reserve component of the Space Force
■ Continued National Guard integration in the Total Force cyber mission and training

The Same Equipment

● Deployable, Interoperable and sustainable equipment
● Concurrent and proportional fielding of equipment, including:
■ UH-60M Black Hawk, MQ-1C 25M Gray Eagle, F-35A Lightning II, KC-46A Pegasus, C-130J Super Hercules and Future Vertical Lift procurement
● Equipment modernization and recapitalization, including:
■ AH-64E Apache, Humvee, M1 Abrams and M2 Bradley, C-130H Hercules, A-10 Thunderbolt II, F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon

The Same Resources & Benefits

● Zero-cost TRICARE to ensure reserve-component medical readiness
● Post-9/11 GI Bill parity
● Robust National Guard & Reserve Equipment Account funding
● Tax incentives for Guardsmen and their employers
● Ready access to mental health care and suicide prevention
● Increased National Guard military construction