(TargetLiberty.org) – On Friday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) sent a letter in which he expressed his opposition to the move of the Biden administration to have service members from the Air National Guard incorporated into the Space Force.
In late March the Department of Defense put forward a legislative proposal which would have Congress override existing law and would require the governors to approve National Guard unit changes. The change would move hundreds of service members to the Space Force.
A letter was sent to the Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin earlier this week by 48 governors of states, commonwealths, and territories in opposition to the proposal. However, DeSantis was not one of the people to have signed the letter, which had been sent from the National Governors Association. However, in his own letter to the House and Senate Armed Services committees ranking members and chairs, he argued that the proposal would undermine the federal protections of the National Guard forces in each state.
DeSantis argued that under the current code the “statutory requirement” would be ensuring the National Guard members were able to work for domestic crisis response. He added that Florida’s position as a “storm-prone state” made it uniquely vulnerable to flooding and extreme weather conditions, which is why it often needs disaster support, including using the state’s National Guard units.
DeSantis has argued that his state’s National Guard actually needed to be larger than it currently is and that the federal government was “under-resourced” when compared to other large states.
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