Senate Guard Caucus Leaders Propose Bill (S. 513)
To Repeal Insurrection Act Changes
That Facilitate Federalizing The National Guard

WASHINGTON (Wednesday, Feb. 7) – Backed by the nation’s governors and the National Guard community, the co-chairs of the Senate’s National Guard Caucus Wednesday took the first step to repeal a new law that makes it easier to federalize the National Guard for domestic law enforcement purposes during emergencies, even over governors’ objections.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.), the co-chairs of the 80-member Senate National Guard Caucus, introduced their bill to repeal the changes made late last year to the Insurrection Act.  Those changes, included in the Defense Authorization Bill, ease the ability of a President to declare martial law and assume control of the National Guard.  The Insurrection Act governs when the military, including the National Guard, can be used for domestic law enforcement without the consent of a governor.  Last year’s changes discard what Leahy terms “a useful friction” in the law which has helped make such presidential takeovers rare, making it easier now to invoke the Insurrection Act after events including natural disasters, disease outbreaks and terrorist attacks.  The new Leahy-Bond bill would restore the Act to its original form.

“Expanding the President’s powers under the Insurrection Act was a sweeping, ill-considered and little-noticed grant of authority to the Executive Branch, at the expense of the National Guard and the governors,” said Leahy.  “That change in longstanding law treads heavily across basic constitutional issues relating to the rights of the people, the separation of powers, and state and local sovereignty.  The National Guard is most effective when it can respond immediately to the needs of the communities it serves, and that is best done when the response is organized as close to the local emergency as possible.” 

"As a former Governor who has called upon the National Guard in crisis, I am very concerned with this imprudent change in law. Not only do our nation's governors now have less control over their Guard units, the President is also provided with unnecessary and unprecedented power to invoke martial law.  Our bill will provide a critical fix to legislation that was pushed through Congress without the consultation or advice of the governors," said Bond.

Last August, the National Association of Governors sent a letter to then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and to the leadership of both the House and Senate, opposing the Insurrection Act changes.  The new Leahy-Bond repeal legislation has the support of the National Guard Association, the Adjutants General of the United States, and the Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the United States, in addition to the governors’ association.

# # # # #

Text of legislation, S. 513.
Statement of Sen. Patrick Leahy on legislation to repeal changes to the Insurrection Act.
Letter of support from the National Governors Association.
Letter of support from the National Sheriffs' Associaiton.
Letter of support from the Enlisted Association of the National Guard.
Letter of support from the Adjutants General of the United States.
Letter of support from the National Guard Association.