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Webb’s deployment amendment will open debate on defense bill |
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By Roxana Tiron
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Posted: 07/03/07 07:16 PM [ET] |
As the Pentagon continues to work on a new rotation strategy that Defense Secretary Robert Gates proposed earlier this year, the Senate will begin debate on the 2008 defense authorization bill with a vote on Sen. Jim Webb’s (D-Va.) amendment that would give troops more time at home between deployments.
Webb’s amendment, the first provision to be debated next week as the Senate takes up the authorization bill, will likely face opposition by the administration. The White House several months ago vetoed the 2007 war emergency bill partly on grounds that Congress should not etch into law deployment and dwell times, which the administration says would curtail commanders’ flexibility on the battlefield.
The amendment could be the first in a long list of provisions likely to attract a presidential veto of the 2008 defense authorization bill. Following Webb’s amendment, the Senate is expected to take up new Iraq troop withdrawal provisions; changes to last year’s Military Commissions Act; and a provision to close the military prison at Guantánamo Bay.
Webb’s staff is using the recess week to get bipartisan support for the provision, according to a Webb spokeswoman. The amendment was finalized on Friday after Webb’s staff conferred with professional staff on both sides of the aisle so that the language can “pass muster,” according to the spokeswoman.
Among the 9 cosponsors are Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Appropriations Chairman Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.). Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) also expressed support for the amendment.
Signaling concern with the continuing erratic deployment schedules, the amendment requires the Pentagon to give active-duty troops at least as much time at home as they spent on deployments, and mandates that National Guard and Reserve members get to stay home for three years following their one-year deployments.
Active-duty Army soldiers currently serve up to 15 months in Iraq or Afghanistan, with a 12-month home stay. National Guard and Reserve units can serve longer terms, which have placed significant strain on their supplies and readiness at home. In addition, the White House surge strategy in Iraq has increased demand for military personnel.
“We’re seeing, in many cases, our ground troops burned out,” Webb said at a press conference last week.
“The current strategy of this administration has not justified the deployment of troops in this way,” added Webb, who served as secretary of the Navy and assistant secretary of defense for Reserve Affairs during the Reagan administration.
Gates earlier this year proposed an initiative to change the deployment of Reserve as well as active-duty troops. Under Gates’s directive, members of the Reserve components would have an involuntary deployment of one year, followed by five years on their home bases. Some Reserve forces could be mobilized sooner, but only on a temporary basis. Meanwhile, active-duty forces would be deployed for one year at a time, followed by two years at their home bases.
The chief of the National Guard Bureau, Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, has also been pushing for the five-year dwell time at home to keep his force and equipment ready and prepared for domestic as well as overseas missions.
Pentagon officials have acknowledged, however, that it may be difficult to adhere strictly to the new rotation plans, and are looking to establish a compensation and incentive program for those whose deployments are extended.
But progress on Gates’s plan was temporarily stalled amid discussions over the incentive plans for soldiers serving longer than required. Pentagon officials have offered a benefit of a few additional weeks of paid leave — a move that the Guard Bureau shut down, according to a congressional source familiar with the negotiations. The Pentagon has also been rethinking the benefits it can offer to Guard members who are deployed longer or more often than every six years, the source said.
If Webb’s amendment becomes law, it could hamstring the active-duty and Reserve troops by effectively giving them less time at home than what they could get under the plan by Blum and Gates, added the source.
But Webb’s spokeswoman said that the amendment sets only the bare minimum. The goal would be to have one-year deployments and two years at home for active-duty troops and one-year deployments and five years at home for Reserve components. The spokeswoman added that so far the National Guard does not even get the 1-to-3 ratio.
The amendment also stipulates that the president may waive the limitations on deployments if he can certify that the deployment of a unit or a member is necessary to “meet an operational emergency posing a threat to vital national security interests of the United States.” The services’ chiefs of staff may also waive the limitation if a member of the military voluntarily requests deployment.
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