Bill Keating: “In the important debate to save National Guard units, we made some steps forward in this bill and, unfortunately, also…”

“In the important debate to save National Guard units, we made some steps forward in this bill and, unfortunately, also took steps backward. Many in the Chamber may assume that all the National Guard units were restored in the markup of this bill. That's simply not the case. A vital and unique group of Air National Guard units, known as C- NAFs, have a full-time mission to support Active Duty bases. These augmentation units take on a large chunk of the workload while only accounting for a small percentage of the mission's workforce--and the work is all done domestically. In and of itself, that provides a higher degree of security because there are discrete sites that are isolated and more easily secured here in the United States. These units were created because they're cost effective, and eliminating them will result in unfinished business, displaced costs and, perhaps the most alarming of all consequences, endangered lives. To illustrate, the 102nd Air Operations Group at Otis Air National Guard Base works 24/7 365 days of the year to conduct 30 percent of the Air Force Global Strike Command's surveillance mission, and only accounts for 10 percent of the Command's workforce--30 percent of the mission and 10 percent of the Command's workforce. The 102nd Air Operations Group's counterparts at Barksdale Air Base in Louisiana rely on these great men and women to examine realtime footage and spot out threats.…”