No Overreaction

When there is a proposal before Congress to bypass gubernatorial authorities, cut National Guard units or reduce U.S. military capabilities, NGAUS will always speak up. It’s our obligation. Especially when it’s all three.

Even when the proposal is from the Air Force.

That’s how we got into a recent public fight with Air Force officials. We take no pleasure in it. We would rather work together. But we can’t stand by and let their proposal go through. That outcome would be worse than this fight.

What service officials want is permission to circumvent longstanding federal laws and transfer Air Guard space units to the Space Force without the required consent of their respective governors.

Our fight against Legislative Proposal 480 is about preserving the command structure of the Guard born in the Constitution.

The laws in question have been on the books for more than a century. They were put in place to prevent just such a federal overreach.

Air Force officials say we are overreacting, that they only want to bypass the law just once, but our laws don’t come with special one-time exceptions.

And even once is a terrible precedent. These officials may stick to their word, but what’s to stop others in the years ahead from invoking this precedent and taking units without consent?

Our fight against legislation proposal 480 is about more than 1,000 personnel in 14 space units across seven states. It’s about preserving the command structure of the Guard born in the Constitution.

Guard units belong to the governors until federalized by the president. The Army and the Air Force may employ Guard units in accordance with the law. But they can’t take them and keep them.

That’s why all 55 governors — 50 state governors and five territorial governors — oppose LP480. Each either signed a National Governors Association letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III or sent a personal letter to Austin or President Joe Biden.

I can’t remember the last time the nation’s governors were so aligned on an issue.

Make no mistake, this proposal is a product of unelected officials in Washington who simply don’t like the states involved in the defense of the United States. We encounter them all the time in both the executive and legislative branches of government.

They don’t like the Guard being the combat reserve of the Army and Air Force, and they are fighting the establishment of the Guard as the combat reserve of the Space Force, even if that means reducing the nation’s space capabilities.

And LP480 will erode the military’s ability to defend U.S. assets and interests in space. Reps. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., and Donald Davis, D-N.C., agree. Their amendment maintains the governors’ authority in the House version of the fiscal 2025 National Defense Authorization Act.

According to the Space Force, Air Guard space units provide more than 30% of the U.S. military’s space capabilities. These units have been conducting space missions for nearly 30 years. Unit members are some of the military’s most skilled space professionals.

But surveys indicate that up to 86% don’t want to leave the Guard. Additionally, part-timers make up 60% to 65% of these units and there are no part-time slots in the Space Force today. And officials say it could be more than five years before such positions are available.

Simply put, transferring these units to the Space Force would effectively empty them, rendering them combat ineffective.

They can be rebuilt, of course. The National Guard Bureau says it would take as many as nine years to refill these units and bring them up to their current level of ability. Meanwhile, the U.S. military will have diminished space capabilities at a time when Russia and China are rushing to bolster their presence in space.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall mentioned the growing threat of China at an April 9 Senate subcommittee hearing. “Time is my greatest concern,” he said.

I share his concern. In addition to the dangerous precedent created by LP480, the nation doesn’t have the time to rebuild space capabilities that would be lost because of this proposal.

The NGAUS president can be reached via ngaus@ngaus.org.