'A horrible position': National Guard's virus mission in jeopardy without White House extension
States are preparing to pull thousands of National Guard troops off the front lines of coronavirus relief efforts with federal funding set to expire later this month and no response from the White House on governors' pleas to extend the deployments for the rest of the year.
Federal support for the Guard response to the public health crisis is set to end on Aug. 21. That means states will have had to pull Guard personnel from their duties by Aug. 7 to give them two weeks to quarantine before returning to their home communities.
While some states, including Washington and Arizona, have vowed to fully fund the troops' missions with state dollars if federal support disappears, other states cannot afford to do so. Nevada, for example, will only be able to fund a third of the Guard members who've been federally deployed, meaning their testing and contact tracing work will be significantly scaled back while other services like distributing food to low-income school children and delivering masks and gloves to nursing homes will cease entirely.
On Monday, the National Governors Association released a statement slamming the administration for unnecessary delays that are creating significant challenges for states and territories, which are amplified in the middle of a crisis.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-horrible-position-national-guards-virus-mission-in-jeopardy-without-white-house-extension/ar-BB17w9pN?li=BBnb7Kz