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# DAILY BRIEFING March 8, 2006

## Lawmakers draft bill to elevate reserve officer to U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff 

By Megan Scully,
[CongressDaily](http://www.nationaljournal.com/about/congressdaily)

The Senate National Guard Caucus is drafting legislation that would add
a four-star Guard commander to the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, a bold
move to put a reserve officer in the highest echelon of military
leadership.

If enacted, the legislation would mark the first major change to the
nation\'s premier military planning and advisory group in two decades.
The move is intended to give the National Guard \"more muscles\" in
dealing with the Pentagon bureaucracy and ensure that civilian and
active-duty military leaders will consult the Guard on decisions
affecting the force, Sen. Christopher (Kit) Bond, R-Mo., chairman of the
caucus, said Wednesday.

The bill, which Bond hopes to push to the Senate floor as early as this
year, would elevate the National Guard Bureau chief to a four-star
billet, putting the position on par with the chiefs of each military
service, the Joint Chiefs chairman and vice chairman, all of whom are
four-star generals or admirals.

The legislation also would require another Guard officer fill the deputy
commander position at U.S. Northern Command, which coordinates homeland
defense missions. In addition, it would protect the Army and Air
National Guard\'s weapons-buying budgets by separating them from the
services\' own procurement accounts.

Bond and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the caucus co-chairman, laid out
their proposal Wednesday at the first of a series of hearings by the
independent National Guard and Reserve Commission. The Guard and its
closely allied veterans groups enjoy universal support in the Capitol,
where dozens of lawmakers recently banded together to oppose an Army
decision to pay for 17,000 fewer Guard soldiers in fiscal 2007 instead
of budgeting for the entire authorized force level of 350,000 troops.

\"I am convinced such legislation will eventually pass,\" Leahy said.
But Bond acknowledged that \"some of our friends in the Pentagon may
have a minimum amount of high enthusiasm for it.\"

Bond asked the commission to consider the legislation as one of its
first orders of business, and include its initial views about enlarging
the Joint Chiefs of Staff in its preliminary 90-day report due June 1.
The commission will send its final report, including proposed
legislative language on a range of issues, to Congress March 1, 2007.

During the hearing, lawmakers gave the 13-member commission a long to-do
list for its year-long review of the Guard and reserve. Top issues will
include the reserve component\'s equipment budgets, force size and
missions.

\"What should the Guard and reserve do?\" said Senate Armed Services
Personnel Subcommittee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. \"Apparently
everything because we\'re asking them to do everything.\"

The panel also will consider benefits and retirement packages for
reserve forces, which have been beefed up in the last several budgets
largely because of record deployments since 2001.

But Senate Armed Services Chairman John Warner, R-Va., cautioned that
the panel must find a balance between rewarding reserve troops and
overextending benefits. There must be a \"differential\" in benefits
offered to the reserves and active-duty troops to reflect the greater
demands placed on fulltime, active-duty forces, he said.

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