Remarks Of Sen. Patrick Leahy
National Guard Equipment
August 3, 2006

Mr. President, I will take this opportunity to discuss an amendment that Senator Bond and I introduced yesterday to guarantee that $2.4 billion of the $13 billion included in the package of the managers on Tuesday for the Army and Marine Corps be allocated for National Guard equipment.  This amendment will ensure that promises made to the Guard about funding will be fulfilled, and, more importantly, it provides a needed infusion of equipment to the National Guard. 

The amendment follows an amendment that Senator Bond and I introduced last September to the Fiscal Year 2006 Defense Appropriations.  At that time, our Nation was in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.  That terrible storm demonstrated the significant shortfalls in equipment available to the Guard at home for use in such natural disasters or other domestic emergencies.  If another storm of the magnitude of Katrina had hit the country in the weeks and months that followed, the Guard would not have had enough trucks, tractors and communications gear across the country to adequately respond.

The problem then — and still the problem today — is that much of the National Guard’s equipment has been left in Iraq, where the National Guard has been indispensable.  Since the start of the war in Iraq, Guard units have deployed with their gear and then, after a year, they have left this gear for use by other units arriving in Iraq.  Worse still, the National Guard has consistently been under-funded, leaving it with well less than the required equipment stocks.

These low levels of equipment threaten the Guard’s ability to carry out the two critical prongs of its dual-mission. 

Two days ago, the top National Guard General, Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, reported that more than two-thirds of the Army National Guard's 34 brigades are not combat ready, due largely to vast equipment shortfalls.

Almost a year after Katrina, the Department of Defense leadership — which is ultimately responsible for monitoring the Guard’s capabilities — has yet to recognize this clear problem, let alone to develop a real funding plan to deal with the problem. 

The $900 million included in last years’ Defense Appropriations Bill was only the beginning of addressing this major problem with shortfalls – a problem that General Blum himself estimates to total nearly $21 billion.

Congress has no choice but to act.  That is why this amendment takes another step toward addressing the Guard’s response capabilities at home.  It adds $2.4 billion on top of the funding in the regular bill and bridge supplemental for the Guard to procure equipment – for items as diverse as remanufactured tanks, radios, medium-sized trucks, and command-and-control systems. 

I would like to commend Senator Stevens and Senator Inouye, who were able to identify almost $340 million in National Guard and Reserve Equipment in the Committee markup of the baseline defense bill.  That number shows the enormous support that exists within the Defense Subcommittee, especially when the Senate defense allocation was $9 billion below that set in the House of Representatives.

On behalf of our Guard units, our Guard members, and of all Americans who so acutely rely on their steadfast readiness and service, I urge my colleagues to vote now for a much-needed, higher level for the Guard. 

This problem is so pressing and so severe that we cannot afford to lose momentum.

Thank you.

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