NGAI Alert #12-1; 9 January 2012

Dear NGAI Member,

Congratulations! Your e-mails and phone calls to your Congressional Representatives have paid off. See the information below from NGAUS headquarters “National Guard Empowerment Now Law of the Land; Defense act adds Guard officer to Joint Chiefs”. This is a direct result of your involvement. Now we need to remain vigilant and keep our voices heard as the defense budget battles are played out on all the news networks and Capitol Hill. Membership in NGAI, NGAUS and EANGUS are more important than ever at this time. Our 2012 Membership Drive is off to a great start. Join NGAI and your respective national association online by visiting us at www.NGAI.net. Your NGAI Board of Directors has waived the credit card processing fee so take advantage of our secure online membership payment. Visit our website often for the latest and keep responding to the Legislative Alerts! Some significant dates:

Indiana General Assembly, Jan 6. While 2012 is a short year for the assembly, it grows shorter each day as the House has not been called in to session. Please visit our website often to review the bills of interest as the Senate session progresses.

The Nominations Committee and schedule will be posted on our website 13 Jan 2011 followed by a call for nominations to all members in good standing. If you are interested in serving on the Board of Directors please get your information to the committee chair by emailing linda@NGAI.net before 02 Feb 2012.

NGAI Sponsored Professional Development Opportunities. We will be contacting the MACOM’s soon to get nominations for the NGAI sponsored attendees to NGAI, EANGUS, and NGAUS conferences. Please take advantage of this opportunity to reward some of your top soldiers and airmen with these great professional development conferences.

The NGAI Annual Conference in French Lick is just a few months away. Please mark your calendar and join us 20-21 April 2012. Registration will be available on the website very soon. LTG William Ingram, Jr. Director, Army National Guard has been invited to be our guest.

The NGEDA Conference is in Reno later this month and we will be reserving a block of hotel rooms for the NGAUS Conference. If you know you will be attending NGAUS please confirm with linda@ngai.net or call at 317-247-3196 so we can have a good estimate on the number of rooms needed. The NGAUS Conference dates are 9-12 September 2012. Registration will be on the website shortly after NGEDA.

The Educational Grant Fund application is available on the website with a link to it on the front page. Deadline is 15 March 2012 so if you or one of your dependants is planning on being in college in the fall of 2012, please submit your application.

Our 13th Annual Car Show is scheduled for Saturday, 7 July, 2012 at the Indiana War Memorial downtown Indianapolis. Flyers and registration will be available on our website. We are looking to break last year’s record number of registrations.

The 2012 EANGUS Conference is in Long Beach, CA 26-29 August, 2012. We had a record number of attendees at last year’s conference and look forward to the same this year. More information to follow.

Our annual golf event and motorcycle ride dates will be announced later this month.

Thanks for your continued support and hope to see many of you in French Lick.

Mike

Mike Sturm
Executive Director
National Guard Association of Indiana

National Guard Empowerment
Now Law of the Land
Defense act adds Guard officer to Joint Chiefs
January 3, 2012

WASHINGTON — The National Guard community — nearly 500,000 men and women in uniform plus hundreds of thousands of family members and retirees — is hailing language in the fiscal 2012 National Defense Authorization Act that adds one of their own to the nation’s senior panel of military advisors.

President Barack Obama signed the NDAA on Saturday. It includes a provision giving the Guard’s senior officer, the chief of the National Guard Bureau (NGB), a permanent seat on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The president’s signature culminated a legislative effort to “empower” the Guard that began years ago. It gained momentum last spring after the House passed an amendment that would give the Guard a seat at the table and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the co-chairs of the Senate National Guard Caucus, included the same proposal in a more comprehensive Senate bill.

The House and Senate ultimately agreed on a package of Guard Empowerment provisions, including adding the NGB chief to the Joint Chiefs.

“This is the Guard’s most significant legislative victory since the Militia Act of 1903 created the modern, dual-mission National Guard,” said retired Maj. Gen. Gus L. Hargett Jr., the president of the National Guard Association of the United States. “But the real winner here is the nation’s homeland security.

“The primary role of the Joint Chiefs is to advise the president, the secretary of defense and the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security,” he said. “Without the Guard at the table, our civilian leaders didn’t have direct access to expertise on the Guard’s domestic-response capabilities. In the post-9/11 world, it was a void that had to be filled. And now it has been filled.”

The NGB chief — a four-star general — previously participated as an invited guest in some discussions with the Joint Chiefs. However, he was not a required participant and was often excluded from meetings. Nor did he have the ability to nominate Guard officers for positions that require Senate confirmation.

The provision in the NDAA enables the NGB chief to sit with the heads of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines — none of whom have ever served in the Guard — and provide the Guard, for the first time, permanent representation among the nation’s senior military officers.
Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich., and Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., co-sponsored the legislation in the House.

Other Guard Empowerment provisions in the NDAA include requirements for the Pentagon to delineate Guard and Reserve equipment procurement in future budget requests, to prepare a report to Congress on the costs of Guard and Reserve units versus similar active-component outfits, and to consider Guard and Reserve officers for appointment to certain command positions.

The NDAA also creates a new three-star position of NGB vice chief and provides permanent funding to the Guard’s State Partnership Program with democratic nations around the world.