The National Guard Adjutants General quickly pounced on statements and rumors about impending Air Force and Army troop cuts that would include reserve as well as active forces. Firing off a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Maj. Gen. Roger Lempke, Nebraska’s TAG and president of the Adjutants General Association of the United States, entreats him “in the strongest possible terms” to refrain from unilateral action and to consider the low cost of the highly used Guard resource. This promises to be another bloody battle, at least equal to the attack on the USAF plan to cut ANG force structure under BRAC 2005—on that, too, TAGs (and governors) claimed they were blindsided.
House, Senate Unveil Competing Proposals for 2026 Budget
July 11, 2025
Lawmakers from the House and Senate laid out competing versions of the annual defense policy bill on July 11, with vastly different potential outcomes for some of the Air Force’s most embattled programs.