06.22.06

Senate Approves Cantwell Measure to Help National Guard Replace Equipment

DOD not following its own policy on replacing National Guard equipment left overseas

WASHINGTON, DC – The Senate decided unanimously Thursday to include U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell’s legislation to address National Guard equipment shortfalls in a bill to fund the Defense Department next year. Cantwell’s “National Guard Equipment Accountability Act,” introduced in April, would mandate a system to track and replace equipment left in the theater of operations by National Guard units.

“In support of our nation’s military missions, one of our state’s National Guard units has already left more than $30 million in equipment behind in Iraq,” said Cantwell. “At a time when our National Guard is already stretched too thin, this added burden could prevent our brave men and women from being trained and safely completing their mission. We must ensure that the men and women of our National Guard have the equipment and support they need to respond quickly and effectively to emergencies both at home and abroad.”

In recent years, the loss of this equipment has hindered training capabilities and limited the National Guard’s ability to respond to potential civil emergencies and natural disasters. For example, at the Pentagon’s direction, the Washington Army National Guard’s 81st Heavy Brigade Combat Team left approximately 1,400 items—including weapons, radios, and vehicles—worth more than $30 million in Iraq for other units to use. Cantwell’s legislation, supported by Adjutant General Timothy Lowenberg of the Washington State National Guard, would require a system to track transferred equipment and mandate the development of plans to replace the equipment in question. It would also require a Department of Defense report detailing all National Guard equipment diverted to other units as well as an equipment replacement plan. The report would have to be completed within 90 days of the equipment’s diversion.

Cantwell has long worked to ensure that all National Guard troops are well equipped and have adequate funding. In a March letter to the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves, Cantwell asked for an examination of how present and proposed troop structures and equipment levels will allow the Guard to respond to current and foreseeable national security needs. The Commission, created by Congress, is charged with recommending needed changes to ensure that the Guard and Reserves are organized, trained, equipped, compensated, and supported to meet national security requirements.

More than 34,000 members of the Guard are currently deployed in the Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom theaters of operations, including more than 500 from Washington state. Since September 11, 2001, more than 6,000 members of the Washington Army and Air Guard have been deployed around the world—all but 800 of them to Iraq. During the past four years, the Washington National Guard has aided federal military missions overseas, responded to local civil emergencies, and supported recovery efforts along the Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina.

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