LEGISLATIVE OBJECTIVES: For Preparation of the Federal Budget for FY2007

National Guard, Apr 2006

The following 13 editorial pages contain a condensed version of the NGAUS Legislative Objectives. The document is based on resolutions passed at last year's 127th General Conference. The association provided the complete version to members of Congress and the Defense Department earlier this year.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Brigadier General Stephen M. Koper (Ret.)

NGAUS President

This document is not a wish list. It is a set of imperatives our nearly 45,000 members nationwide consider vital to accomplishing their future state and federal missions.

NGAUS members established their legislative objectives through the passage of resolutions at the 127th General Conference in September 2005. We gathered at a time when 80,000 National Guard soldiers and airmen were overseas playing critical roles in our nation's war on terror and in several other key operations.

Meanwhile, another 50,000 Guard members were contributing to rescue and relief efforts in Louisiana and Mississippi during the historic response to Hurricane Katrina.

Not since World War II had so many Guard members been called for such an array of missions. Yet, we still had 300,000 more personnel nationwide ready and available to respond to other emergencies. Our conference theme, therefore, had never been more appropriate: "National Guard: Still Meeting the Threat."

We are justifiably proud of our contributions to the nation. But the focus of this association's work, and the resolutions it produced in September 2005, is the National Guard's future, which faces a variety of stiff challenges.

The National Guard today is a force in transition. We overcame critical shortages of equipment and full-time manning to execute our key role in the nation's defense. We have proved our value. Yet, our place in the transformed U.S. military of the 21st century remains unclear.

Our future may well be determined by the outcome of several restructuring efforts, such as the Quadrennial Defense Review. This gives us pause. Historically, such efforts have ignored or blocked our input and discounted our economic and military worth.

The recently completed Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process is another example. And it provides one of our biggest challenges.

Twenty Air National Guard flying units will be grounded over the next five years due to BRAC. Only a handful of them, however, have clear replacement missions, and none include the assignment of new, piloted aircraft.

For the most part, the rest of the Air Guard suffers exclusion from fielding plans for the Air Force's next generation aircraft. Many of the nation's most experienced flight crews and maintainers have been ignored in Air Force future planning.

The Army National Guard's equipment problems are chronic. Today's well-documented shortages of vehicles and radios stem from years of resourcing neglect. This interoperability gap with the active component only grows as we are forced to use outdated, obsolete equipment. At the same time, we wait at the back of the line for transformation.

We addressed these concerns for the future in September and have included them in the pages that follow.

The nation's citizen-soldiers and airmen also deserve an improved benefits package, especially if we are to recruit and retain quality personnel. Guard soldiers and airmen serving along side their active-component counterparts simply deserve the same incentives and bonuses. The same goes for reduced-age retirement and access to health care, regardless of mobilization status.

Our nation was founded on the principle of citizen-soldiers safeguarding our national security. This construct is no less essential and relevant in the 21st century. We urge Congress to make sure the National Guard has the resources it needs to meets its challenges. Only then can the Guard keep meeting the threats to our nation.

JOINT RESOLUTIONS

A re-evaluation of our country's commitment to its citizen-soldiers and airmen is imperative. Today, every member of the National Guard plays a crucial role in defense of our homeland, both here at home and abroad. These men and women deserve more level personnel and readiness benefits commiserate with their service and sacrifice. An updated benefit and compensation policy will ensure the National Guard will continue to attract the best and brightest, from the active component as well as the civilian population, to serve as tomorrow's citizensoldiers and airmen.

Personnel, Benefits and Compensation

NGAUS urges Congress to:

* Allow all members of the National Guard to access Tricare coverage on a cost-share basis, without any restrictions. This should include an evaluation of health care reimbursement and savings accounts as alternative medical resources. Congressional solutions beyond Tricare for the National Guard would promote crucial medical readiness and access for all National Guard members.

* Provide all members of the National Guard with coverage under the Tricare Dental Program (TDP). Each member could have the Annual Dental Examination accomplished with no out of pocket expense and the TDP would pay 100 percent of dental treatment to bring personnel into dental class 1 or 2. All Guard personnel would then be dental qualified for worldwide deployment.