Army National Guard

In response to a congressional request, GAO reported on: (1) the Army National Guard's expanding federal role; (2) the adequacy of armories to accommodate the Guard's changing federal mission; (3) states' ability and willingness to pay their required 25-percent matching share for construction costs and 100 percent of maintenance and repair costs for state-owned armories; and (4) recent actions and proposals to increase the federal share of armory operating costs.

GAO found that: (1) since the Department of Defense (DOD) initiated its total force policy in 1970, the Guard's national defense role has expanded, placing new demands on the Guard's 2,655 state-owned armories; (2) troop levels have increased by over 25,000; (3) the number of full-time federal personnel working in the armories has increased, as has the amount of equipment stored at them; and (4) 42 percent of the armories were inadequate, largely due to lack of sufficient training, office space, and equipment storage space. According to the state adjutants general: (1) many armories were in a poor state of repair, resulting in an estimated $172-million backlog of maintenance and repair projects; (2) replacement or repair of armories is dependent on the availability of state funds; and (3) states have not committed the funds needed for construction, modification, maintenance, and repair because of fiscal problems, a relatively low priority placed on Guard facilities, and the expectation that armories would primarily carry out the federal mission.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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