States get expanded role in Guard policy

At the behest of Congress, President Obama is creating a Council of Governors to advise the administration on National Guard and other homeland defense issues, marking a significant victory for Guard boosters who have long lobbied for better coordination between state and federal government on security matters.

The council is the last element to be implemented from a sweeping package of National Guard reforms enacted as part of the fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill. The changes were intended to give the frequently deployed military forces, ordinarily under command of state governors, greater say within the halls of the Pentagon.

An outgrowth of the recommendations from the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves, the council is expected to help improve communication on issues related to Guard and military support to civilian authorities during emergencies. Other issues could include Guard equipment, training and readiness and deployment schedules, as well as the National Response Plan and other emergency preparedness matters.

With the fiscal 2008 authorization bill, Congress had hoped the Bush administration would create the council before leaving office. But the time needed for coordination between the Defense and Homeland Security departments ultimately left the matter up to President Obama.

In March, the National Governors Association sent Obama a letter urging him to work quickly to set up the council.

On Monday, Obama signed an executive order establishing the bipartisan council, whose core members will be 10 governors appointed by the president for a two-year term. Selections will be made with advice from governors and governors' associations and no more than five members will come from one political party.

Other members will include the secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security, presidential advisers on homeland security and counterterrorism, the head of the military's U.S. Northern Command, the Coast Guard commandant and the chief of the Pentagon's National Guard Bureau.

"This is a collaboration that is overdue and can probably really help move the ball forward," said David Quam, NGA's director of federal relations.

There have been tensions between governors and the federal government over use of the National Guard, whose heavy overseas deployments have placed a strain on the force while depleting stateside equipment stocks.

Fallout over the bungled response to Hurricane Katrina's devastation along the Gulf Coast in 2005 sparked a power struggle between governors and the Bush administration over who should retain control of Guard troops during major disasters and emergencies at home.

At the Bush administration's request in 2006, Congress voted to expand the president's authority to federalize the National Guard during certain emergencies and disasters. After governors launched a hard-fought public campaign opposing the change, the language was ultimately repealed as part of a package of National Guard reforms in the fiscal 2008 authorization bill.

At the time, governors argued they were not consulted on a significant expansion of the president's authority to declare martial law.

In its 2007 report, the National Guard Commission recommended creating the council of governors to avoid such problems in the future.

The council will "make governors aware of pending matters affecting the National Guard and the other reserve components, so that claims of surprise and lack of consultation by state authorities in the wake of the public announcement of controversial decisions, including ones related to resourcing and budgeting, should be minimized - itself an important goal to foster public trust," the commission said.