Thread by @LizaGoitein

In yesterday’s markup of the National Defense Authorization Act, the House Armed Services Committee voted for three reforms that would help to prevent some of the improper uses of National Guard forces we’ve seen in the past year and a half. 1/14

First, the committee rejected an amendment that would have stripped @EleanorNorton’s D.C. National Guard Home Rule Act from the NDAA. That legislation, championed on the committee by @RepAnthonyBrown, transfers command of the D.C. Guard from the president to D.C.’s mayor. 2/14

As my colleague @josephanunn and I have explained, that’s a long overdue reform. Presidential command of the D.C. National Guard is a relic from an era before D.C. had any local government. 3/14 justsecurity.org/74098/why-d-c-…

Presidential command of the D.C. National Guard also creates a gaping loophole in the Posse Comitatus Act, handing the president a domestic military police force to use at will without having to follow the rules set by Congress. 4/14

Presidential command also means the mayor has to get permission—and go through layers of federal bureaucracy—to use D.C.’s National Guard for any purpose, including to protect public safety in the district. On January 6, that led to delays that may have cost lives. 5/14

Second, the committee voted for an amendment by @RepSherrill clarifying that a governor can’t send her (non-federalized) NG forces into another jurisdiction without that jurisdiction’s consent. Put bluntly, a state can’t militarily invade another U.S. state or territory. 6/14

Last June, that’s exactly what happened. The governors of 11 states agreed to a request by Trump to send their Guard forces to D.C. to police protests, over Mayor Bowser’s objections. Nothing like that had ever happened before. 7/14

The amendment’s opponents argued it would bar presidents from using the NG to enforce civil rights laws in recalcitrant states. @RepSherrill easily knocked down that strawman. Presidents have express legal authority to federalize the Guard in those circumstances. 8/14

You can read more about these first two reforms in this @justsecurity piece by @sorendayton and @coleblum… 9/14 justsecurity.org/78053/the-nati…

…in this @DefenseOne piece by Angelo Pis-Dudot and me… 10/14 defenseone.com/ideas/2021/06/…

…or in this letter to the House Armed Services Committee, signed by 32 organizations from across the ideological spectrum. 11/14 brennancenter.org/our-work/resea…

Finally, the committee voted for an amendment by @RepEscobar that prohibits the use of private funds to finance inter-state deployments of the National Guard, unless the deployment is for emergency or disaster relief purposes. 12/14

Sorry, Governor Noem – next time you want to send the South Dakota NG to the Texas border for a publicity stunt, the voters who pay taxes in your state will have to foot the bill, not a wealthy political donor. 13/14 npr.org/2021/06/30/101…

Congratulations—and many thanks—to @EleanorNorton, @RepAnthonyBrown, @RepSherrill, and @RepEscobar for their hard work on these important reforms! We're a giant step closer to enacting protections against political abuses of our National Guard forces. 14/14