NGAUS Legislative Alert #25; 9 Nov 2011

The Issue: Senate Armed Services Committee Hearing on National Guard Empowerment

Immediate Action Required: Contact your Senators to reinforce their support for the National Guard seat on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Its crunch time National Guard community! If you’ve never sent your Senator an email for his or her support, the time to do it is now!

The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) has scheduled a full committee hearing at 10:00 am on November 10th (Thursday) to discuss the proposal to create a permanent seat on the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JSC) for the Chief of the National Guard Bureau (CNGB). Witnesses include the sitting members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who unanimously oppose this initiative, and the Chief of the National Guard Bureau.

The House of Representatives already passed this legislation and, to date, 68 Senators have supported elevating the CNGB to the JCS, including the majority of the Senate Armed Services Committee; and the initiative has received endorsements by the National Governor’s Association, Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, Adjutant Generals Association of the United States, and the President of the United States as a campaign promise in his Blueprint for Change in 2008.

However, SASC leadership and current members of the Joint Chiefs have outspokenly opposed elevating the CNGB to the JCS, and have called this hearing to speak out against passing S. 1025 in the Senate.

Contact your Senate co-sponsors and members of the SASC (see list of current SASC co-sponsors below) to ensure their continued support of this historic legislation (sample letter available). If a Senator is not a co-sponsor, please contact them and urge their support.

Webcast of the hearing available here: http://armed-services.senate.gov/Webcasts.htm.  It may also be available on C-SPAN.

MG (Ret) Gus Hargett Jr, President of the National Guard Association of the United States, said in an interview this morning that "The Army is its own brand, the Air Force is its own brand. But, you know, the Guard is the only component out there that's really two brands. They're the citizen-soldier in peace time and and they're the guys called to active federal service in war time." 

SASC DEMOCRATIC CO-SPONSORS
Daniel K. Akaka (Hawaii)
Ben Nelson (Nebraska)
Claire McCaskill (Missouri)
Mark Udall (Colorado)
Kay R. Hagan (North Carolina)
Mark Begich (Alaska)
Joe Manchin III (West Virginia)
Jeanne Shaheen (New Hampshire)
Kirsten E. Gillibrand (New York)
Richard Blumenthal (Connecticut)

SASC REPUBLICAN CO-SPONSORS
Scott P. Brown (Massachusetts)
Kelly Ayotte (New Hampshire)
Lindsey Graham (South Carolina)
David Vitter (Louisiana)

SASC DEMOCRATS (NOT SIGNED ON)
Joseph I. Lieberman (Connecticut)
Jack Reed (Rhode Island)
Carl Levin (Michigan)

SASC REPUBLICANS (NOT SIGNED ON)
John McCain (Arizona)
James M. Inhofe (Oklahoma)
Jeff Sessions (Alabama)
Saxby Chambliss (Georgia)
Roger F. Wicker (Mississippi)
Rob Portman (Ohio)
Susan M. Collins (Maine)
John Cornyn (Texas)

TAKE THE FOLLOWING ACTION:
By using the “Write to Congress” feature on the NGAUS Web site at www.ngaus.org/writetocongress, you can IMMEDIATELY e-mail your elected representatives. A sample letter is included in our “Write to Congress” feature. You can e-mail the pre-written message or edit the sample letter as you desire. This is the quickest and most effective method of expressing your views to Congress. Also, contact your friends and family and urge them to "Write to Congress" as well. For more in-depth information and background visit our web site at www.ngaus.org. Please direct any questions concerning this issue to Pete Duffy, NGAUS Deputy Legislative Director via email at pete.duffy@ngaus.org