Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has criticized the Biden administration’s proposal to incorporate Air National Guard Service members into the Space Force, arguing the move is a “threat” to the Texas National Guard.
In a letter to President Biden sent last week, Abbott said the proposal would give the Secretary of the Air Force “unilateral authority” to transfer portions of Air National Guard units to the Space Force without the governor’s consent.
In a March legislative proposal to the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Defense Department asked Congress to overturn an existing law that requires governors to approve changes to National Guard units in order to transfer hundreds of members to the Space Force.
“While the Texas Air National Guard does not have this type of mission, I strongly oppose any attempt to sideline governors with regard to their respective National Guards,” Abbott wrote in his letter, dated May 3.” Congress has long required a governor’s consent before units can be transferred from the National Guard he commands.”
“By departing from this sensible agreement and allowing Secretaries to disband National Guard units on a whim, Legislative Proposition 480 would set a dangerous precedent. Texas National Guard members must always be ready to respond to natural disasters, civil unrest and cartel activities that threaten our way of life,” Abbott continued.
The Texas governor called on the Department of the Air Force to withdraw the proposal, calling it an attempted “power grab.”
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall maintained that the proposal would affect about 14 space units, the equivalent of about 1,000 Air National Guardsmen.reported Air and Space Forces Magazine.
A White House official told The Hill that the Biden administration supports the Defense Department’s recommendation for a one-time transfer of a certain amount of Guard missions to the Space Force, noting that it is consistent with the framework approved by Congress in the annual bill. of defense policy.
The official noted that the Biden administration has been consistently against establishing a Space National Guard.
The letter arrived just days later from a group of governors from 48 states, territories and communities wrote a letter addressed to Secretary of Defense Llyod Austin in opposition to the proposal.
Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) were notably absent from the list of signatories, and DeSantis wrote his own letter to the chairmen and ranking members of the Senate and House Armed Services committees.
DeSantis argued that the measure “would flout more than a century of precedent and undermine federal law protections for state control of its National Guard forces.” He said his state’s National Guard should already be larger than it is and blamed the federal government for making it “underfunded.”
The proposal comes after the Air Force announced in February that it planned to make “sweeping” changes to the military branch and the Space Force to ensure the US can meet security demands. These changes include the development of a new command center, called Integrated Capabilities, to oversee specific areas of the military branch.
The Space Force will also receive a new field command, the Space Futures Command, responsible for experimentation, war games and mission planning.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
