Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

4. Department of Defense · Minor

Transform National Guard employment to end back-to-back deployments

Not started

110 4. Department of Defense

“Transform how the National Guard is employed during extended operations short of declared war to preclude back-to-back federal and state deployments of National Guard soldiers in order to stabilize and preserve military volunteerism in our communities.”

What has happened

  1. Not started

    National Guard employment was not transformed to preclude back-to-back deployments; it was made more available for them. EO 14339 sec. 2(d)(ii) directs the Secretary of War to "immediately begin ensuring that each State's Army National Guard and Air National Guard are resourced, trained, organized, and available to assist Federal, State, and local law enforcement in quelling civil disturbances," to "designate an appropriate number of each State's trained National Guard members to be reasonably available for rapid mobilization," and to "ensure the availability of a standing National Guard quick reaction force that shall be resourced, trained, and available for rapid nationwide deployment." Sec. 2(d)(i) creates a specialized District of Columbia National Guard unit under title 32. Searched: the FY2026 NDAA for "back-to-back" (0) and its National Guard provisions (secs. 314, 512, 514, 2601, 2604, 2606 — training, duty status and construction); the Federal Register full-text API for "National Guard deployment" since 2025-01-20 (0 results).

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

The record runs the other way. Rather than restructuring Guard employment to prevent back-to-back federal and state deployments, the President ordered a standing quick reaction force held ready for rapid nationwide deployment and told the Secretary of War to designate Guard members in every state for rapid mobilization.

This item sits in the page 108–110 Army cluster (#189, #190, #191, #193, #194, #195, #196), whose shared instruments are Public Law 119-21 title XX, the FY2026 NDAA and the FY2026 Department of Defense Appropriations Act (Public Law 119-75, division A) — the first full-year defense appropriation of the window. One negative search covered the whole cluster.

Action
restrict
Object
National Guard deployment practices
ID
195