The Pentagon says it has streamlined the approval process for urgent use of National Guard forces in the District of Columbia, after months of study following the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
The changes give the defense secretary sole authority to approve requests that would involve D.C. National Guard personnel participating in civil law enforcement or that would require their deployment within 48 hours, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in a written statement. That approval authority had previously been delegated to the Army secretary, the service's top civilian official.
The use of National Guard troops in the nation's capital is complicated by the fact that the usual chain of command headed by a governor does not apply because the district is not a state. Thus, the commanding general of the D.C. Guard reports to the president, although a 1969 executive order delegated control to the secretary of defense, who subsequently further delegated the authority to the Army secretary.
Austin said law enforcement activities include crowd control, traffic control, search, seizure, arrest or temporary detention. Prior to the riot, then-Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy handled requests for Guard deployments in the district, initially from the commander of the D.C. Guard. McCarthy acted in consultation with more senior Pentagon officials, including Christopher Miller, the acting secretary of defense at the time, and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
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