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SALT LAKE CITY — Governors from across the United States are pushing back against a Pentagon proposal they say would undermine gubernatorial authority over the National Guard by allowing the Air Force to transfer some space-focused National Guard units into the Space Force.
The U.S. Department of Defense submitted a legislative proposal to the Senate Armed Services Committee in March, asking lawmakers to allow units to be transferred to the newest branch of the military without approval from governors, who serve as commanders-in-chief over National Guard members in their states.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, chairman of the National Governors Association, held a joint press conference with Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Monday to discuss the proposal and ask Pentagon leaders to back off from their proposal.
"Governors value our long history of close coordination with the Defense Department on national security matters, including on decisions surrounding the deployment of National Guard units under our authority," Cox said. "Governors welcome the opportunity to consult with the Defense Department and Congress, and we urge the Air Force to work with governors to find a better way forward."
Polis, a Democrat, expressed "strong opposition" to the proposal and said the change would "strip governors of our rightful authority over National Guard units" and "weaken national security." A letter signed by 53 governors — from most states and several territories — and sent to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin last week said the rule would "deeply damage the relationship between the states and the federal government."
Cox said Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall responded to the letter last week, but he said the response "didn't address the root of the concern that there has been no process to consult with the governors." Kendall also said the proposal's impact would be "negligible" on states, according to Cox.
"That's deeply disappointing," he said.
The proposal would impact some 1,000 Air National Guard troops in Alaska, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, New York and Ohio, according to the National Guard Association of the United States. Polis said guardsmen use space resources to assist with a variety of Guard missions, such as firefighting or responding to other natural disasters.
He estimated that up to 80% of National Guard members impacted would choose not to transfer to the Space Force, "and we would simply lose them to their careers and their lives." The National Governors Association has also said most Guard members would rather stay in their current positions.
Early last month, Kendall told Air and Space Forces Magazine the recently passed Space Force Personnel Management Act will create flexibility for space-focused guardsmen and prevent disruption to those transferred to the Space Force. The bill creates full- and part-time positions within the branch and allows Space Force guardians to "move between the two," according to a March 27 memo to service members.
"The flexibility ... is going to allow people to manage their lives and their careers much more flexibly than traditional means have allowed," Kendall said of the law. "So people should look very carefully at this before they make a snap judgment about whether they're comfortable with the change or not."
A White House official said the Biden administration supports the proposal for a one-time transfer of guardsmen into the Space Force, according to The Hill, and the administration is against establishing a Space National Guard.
But Polis called the proposal a "break with the traditional authority that governors have over National Guard units in our own states and a dangerous precedent on the slippery slope toward federalization of our state National Guard resources."
Cox agreed, saying that precedent "is really damaging to the trust and the relations that we've had for so long. If it truly is negligible, then they should have no problem dropping it and working with governors to find a better way forward."
