National Guard Chief Warns Of Record-Wide Equipment Gap
Caused By Deployments To The Middle East

Reaction Of Senate National Guard Caucus Co-Chairs Leahy And Bond –

WASHINGTON (June 6) – Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Kit Bond (R-Mo.) Wednesday said the warning by the National Guard’s senior uniformed officer that about half of all National Guard equipment is now tied up in the Middle East “should set off alarm bells” and needs to be heeded by the White House and the Pentagon. 

Leahy and Bond co-chair the more than 80-member Senate National Guard Caucus.

Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, the chief of the National Guard Bureau, told a gathering of Guard adjutants general from across the country, meeting this week in Anchorage, Alaska, for their annual consultation, that Guard units have only 53 percent of the equipment they need to handle state emergencies – an all-time low.

Leahy and Bond noted that the National Guard in recent years has been assigned expanded missions – handling natural disasters and emergencies domestically, and providing on-the-ground active duty and support overseas in Iraq, Afghanistan and other locales.  Multiple missions have tested the Guard’s readiness in new and more expansive ways.  Leahy and Bond said the men and women of the Guard have superbly met the challenges, but the Pentagon’s budget allocations for the Guard have not kept up with the Guard’s equipment needs.  

They two lawmakers have stepped in together in recent years to lead efforts to address the Guard’s equipment backlogs.  Last month they again led a successful effort to include $1 billion, not requested by the White House, in the supplemental funding bill for Iraq and Afghanistan, to help replenish Guard equipment stocks for domestic emergency responses.  They also are pushing forward with their National Guard Empowerment Act, which would give the Guard a more effective “seat at the table” as decisions about missions and budgets are decided at the Pentagon.  

“In denying the Guard the equipment they need to stand ready for domestic emergencies, the Administration and the Pentagon are playing with fire,” said Leahy.  “The men and women of the Guard are doing everything they’re being asked to do, and they’re doing it splendidly.  They need and deserve the equipment they need to protect our communities.  The Administration has made funding the Iraqi National Guard a top priority.  It’s time to make our own National Guard a top priority.”

“There is no question that the Guard's equipment stocks for domestic response are low.  This shortage is a result of decades of inadequate funding for Guard equipment,” said Bond.  “The Guard needs a boost in funding now to help alleviate the shortfalls in equipment. The $1 billion we successfully added in the supplemental is just a down payment.  It is past time that the White House and Pentagon begin considering the Guard's critical dual role mission and ensure these men and women have the equipment they need to do their jobs.”

# # # # #