Rahall Calls for Action to Prevent Cuts to National Guard Budget

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As lawmakers in the House and Senate negotiate the defense budget for the remainder of the current fiscal year, U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) late Thursday urged Members of the House and Senate Armed Service Committees to protect the West Virginia Air National Guard from cuts to its force structure and manpower as proposed in the U.S. Air Force budget submission earlier this year.

“I am dedicated to making certain our citizen soldiers have the training, equipment, and resources they need to fulfill their missions.  At a time when our military faces intense pressures due to multiple deployments abroad and federal budget austerity at home, I intend to keep fighting to ensure that the West Virginia National Guard has the resources and support it needs to remain a model of excellence,” said Rahall, a senior member of the National Guard and Reserve Components Caucus.

Rahall signed a bipartisan, bicameral letter to the Chairmen and Ranking Members of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees to prevent the cuts in the Air Guard budget proposed earlier this year.   The Air Guard budget cuts, proposed without input from the States’ governors and adjutant generals, would result in the loss of 193 Air Guard personnel in West Virginia.

The Rahall letter calls for freezing the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve force structure and manpower for the duration of fiscal year 2013, and establishing a National Commission on the Structure of the Air Force to provide a more inclusive and transparent mechanism for addressing the Guard’s budget going forward.

“Having pushed hard to ensure the Guard has a seat at the table on the Joint Chiefs of Staff so that it could advocate effectively in behalf of the Guard’s budgetary needs, I firmly believe the Guard’s input must be considered as part of any deficit reduction effort affecting our Nation’s military.  These are very tough and austere budgetary times, I am going to fight hard to protect the needs of our men and women in uniform and fight to ensure they have every resource necessary to fulfill their mission,” said Rahall.

Last year, Rahall was successful in leading the effort to secure passage in the House of Representatives of the Guardians of Freedom Act, a bill to elevate the Chief of the National Guard Bureau to a position on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, placing the Chief in a position to influence Department of Defense planning and budgetary deliberations and troop readiness and response for the Guard’s dual mission abroad and on the home front.

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