Immigration Plan Places New Demands on National Guard

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• JUDY WOODRUFF, NewsHour Special Correspondent:

  Members of Congress peppered the Pentagon's top brass today with questions about President Bush's plan to use 6,000 National Guard troops to help secure the U.S.-Mexico border. During a hearing, West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd pressed Lieutenant General Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, for more details.

  SEN. ROBERT BYRD (D), West Virginia: Let me ask you, how do we know that these deployments won't detract from the ability of guardsmen to respond to emergencies in their home states?

• LT. GEN. STEVEN BLUM, Chief, National Guard Bureau:

  We have sufficient soldiers to do the overseas war fight, prepare for the upcoming hurricane season, still have the forces that we need to respond for terrorism in this country or a WMD event, and, as the secretary said, at the high-end limit of 6,000, that only represents a little less than 2 percent of our available force.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Currently, there are more than 440,000 civilian soldiers serving part-time in the Army and Air National Guard.

  Guardsmen and women usually drill one weekend a month and two weeks a year under the command of state governors.  But during war or emergencies, the president can press them into federal service. Most deployments are limited to 24 months.

  When on active duty, Guard members get paid the same as regular forces and are eligible for pensions, but only receive limited benefits. The Pentagon has resisted efforts by Guard leaders and governors to include a Guard general as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

  More than 80,000 Army Guard and Reserve troops are on active duty now, the busiest time in what has been a busy decade and a half for the Guard, from the call-up of the first Gulf War, for peacekeeping operations in the Balkans, to guard airports and other facilities after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and in keeping the peace in Afghanistan and Iraq, two conflicts that have left 398 Guard dead.

  In 2005, more than half of the Army's combat brigades in Iraq were pulled from the National Guard, the biggest use of part-time troops in an overseas conflict since World War II. Currently, some 22,000 Guard troops are on duty in Iraq, down from about 40,000 several months ago; 5,000 Guard troops are serving in Afghanistan.

  In addition to overseas combat assignments, the National Guard is often called to respond to natural disasters at home. This week, the Massachusetts and New Hampshire governors dispatched their National Guards to help respond to record flooding.

  In the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, 50,000 Guard troops from across the nation were deployed to the ravaged Gulf Coast, while portions of the Louisiana and Mississippi National Guard were on duty in Iraq.

  Despite the personal hardships and after two years of recruitment shortfalls, the National Guard this year says it is exceeding its recruiting goals.