BILL ANALYSIS Ó ----------------------------------------------------------------- |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 948| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |1020 N Street, Suite 524 | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- CONSENT Bill No: SB 948 Author: Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Amended: 3/10/14 Vote: 21 SENATE VETERANS AFFAIRS COMMITTEE : 6-0, 4/8/14 AYES: Hueso, Knight, Block, Lieu, Nielsen, Roth NO VOTE RECORDED: Correa, Vacancy SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8 SUBJECT : Active militia SOURCE : Author DIGEST : This bill recasts and revises specified qualifications for state active duty (SAD) service members, to include retired or separated members of the federal reserve component of any branch of the United States Armed Forces or the federally recognized National Guard of any state or U.S. territory, with current membership in the State Military Reserve (SMR). This bill requires a service member already serving on SAD who retires federally from the California National Guard (CalGuard) to assess into the SMR in order to maintain eligibility for continued SAD. ANALYSIS : Existing law: CONTINUED SB 948 Page 2 1.Establishes, within the Military Department (CMD), the SAD program, providing both temporary and permanent uniformed positions funded by the state. 2.Provides that permanent positions be filled by a military competitive selection process and that applicants for those positions meet specified eligibility criteria. This bill: 1.Makes changes to the eligibility criteria for permanent positions so that they more accurately reflect the original intent of the author of SB 807 (Correa, Chapter 355, Statutes of 2012). 2.Clarifies that federally recognized retirement from other states' national guards and the federal reserve components (Army Reserve, Air Force Reserve, Navy Reserve, Marine Corps Reserve, and Coast Guard Reserve) confers the same SAD hiring eligibility as already provided under existing law by retirement from the CalGuard and federal active military components. 3.Clarifies that a current SAD member, who retires from active service with the CalGuard, must maintain "gubernatorial call-up" eligibility for continued SAD employment by assessing into the SMR. Background The CMD is a state department located within the executive branch. The CMD is comprised of several components and contains a mix of personnel. The mix includes both paid employees and volunteers, both uniformed military and civilian workers, both full-time and part-time, and both federal and state. CalGuard . The CMD's 24,000-person roster is dominated by its largest component, the CalGuard. The CalGuard is the largest of the 54 "state-level" National Guards located in U.S. states and territories. The CalGuard is split into two components, the larger Army National Guard (ARNG) and the Air National Guard (ANG). Each of these is commanded by a federally recognized Guard general SB 948 Page 3 officer from the appropriate branch of service. The ARNG is an official component of the U.S. Army. The ARNG joins with its "sister" reserve component, the purely federal U.S. Army Reserve, and the full-time Active Component Army to form the total U.S. Army. Similarly, the ANG joins with its sister reserve component, the purely federal U.S. Air Force Reserve and the branch's Active Component Air Force to form the total U.S. Air Force. The National Guard system does not contain sister elements associated with the other branches of the national armed forces - the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, or U.S. Coast Guard. Those military branches have only one reserve component each and all are purely federal. Individual service members of all federal active components, federal reserve components, and federally recognized national guards must meet the same military combat readiness standards and receive the same training, federal pay (pro-rated for part-time service) and federal pensions (also pro-rated). Under existing law, the Governor may call members of the CalGuard onto SAD for various purposes, including disaster response, so long as it does not conflict with the contemporaneous imperatives of federal duty. Other federally-funded personnel . The remaining tiny slice of uniformed CalGuard troops work full-time as Guard members. They constitute a cadre that provides dedicated administrative and training support of the part-time force. Both full-time and part-time uniformed Guard members are federally trained and paid. The CalGuard's administrative and training support cadre also includes a modest number of full-time, federally paid, non-uniformed civilian technicians. Some have dual status, laboring in civilian status during the standard work week, but also serving as a part-time uniformed Guard troop with the same military unit on drill weekends and for federal mobilization purposes. Other administrative technicians are not dual status and work only as civilians. They have no additional uniformed military association with the Guard. SB 948 Page 4 State-funded personnel . In addition to the personnel provided by the federal government, the CMD contains approximately 750 personnel funded by California taxpayers. About 500 of these are full-time uniformed personnel serving full-time on SAD. These SAD positions are not federally recognized and place the employee at no risk of being mobilized federally as part of the national defense force. However, existing state law provides that, in order to be eligible for "mobilization" by the state into a full-time SAD job, a person must fit one of the following profiles, which cross-link different CMD components: A current member of the CalGuard; or Retired or otherwise honorably separated from federal active military or CalGuard service with current membership in the SMR; or A current member of the SMR volunteer component with a minimum of two years of service. The primary rationale for SAD employment requiring active membership in either the CalGuard or the SMR is that both the Guard and SMR components fall under the "active state militia" defined in California statutes. Since members of the active militia may be called onto SAD by the Governor, active membership in one or the other places the SAD applicant in the position of being eligible for "call up" into the SAD full-time job. In addition to the uniformed SAD personnel, about 250 non-uniformed state civil servants provide administrative support to the CMD. SMR . Finally, the CMD includes the SMR, a purely volunteer component with approximately 1,000 active members. FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes Local: No AL:k 4/29/14 Senate Floor Analyses SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: NONE RECEIVED SB 948 Page 5 **** END ****