Governors still leery about Guard numbers
WASHINGTON – President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld offered private assurances to the nation’s governors over plans to make cuts in the National Guard, but some governors said Monday they still are worried.
Republican and Democratic governors said discussions are just beginning on Guard units, the backbone of state emergency and homeland security response.
Governors went into closed-door meetings with Bush and later with Rumsfeld and top military leaders, unified in their opposition to administration budget plans that state leaders have warned would reduce the planned force levels of the Guard. The state-controlled citizen soldiers have been heavily used in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Bush’s 2007 budget submission would support a Guard of about 333,000 citizen soldiers – the current level – rather than the 350,000 authorized by Congress. Bush’s budget plan also proposes to pay for 188,000 Army Reserve troops rather than the 205,000 authorized by Congress.
At Monday’s meetings, Bush, Rumsfeld and Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, promised governors that the administration would find the money to cover the higher number of troops if that many are recruited, several governors said.
“I trust Peter Pace and I trust the president of the United States. They said they’d find the money, and I think you can take that to the bank,” said Republican Jeb Bush of Florida, the president’s brother.
But others weren’t so sure. “It’s still sort of a trust-me concept here,” said Democrat Tom Vilsack of Iowa. “The bottom line is: I’ll believe it when I see it. No disrespect to these people, but you can have 50,000 excuses” for why the money isn’t there.
He and other governors repeatedly have asked why the administration would tinker with the Guard when the states rely on it so heavily and the nation has put such an emphasis on homeland security.
“The reality is we cannot keep this nation safe by keeping the states less safe,” Vilsack said.
Republican Dirk Kempthorne of Idaho said governors want and need the higher number of troops, but he said he isn’t sure the military will make the effort to recruit that many.
Many governors said the administration could have avoided a confrontation if it had worked beforehand with state government and military leaders.
“They did not do a good job of working with the adjutant generals and the governors,” Kempthorne said.
President Bush did not mention the issue Monday night at a GOP fundraiser. But he did allude to concerns in many statehouses about when troops in Iraq – many of them from National Guard units – might come home.
“I will determine the troop levels in Iraq, one necessary to achieve victory, based upon the recommendations of our commanders, not based upon politics in Washington, D.C.”