Currently operating under personnel totals appropriate to Florida’s population in 1958, a memorial passed by the Florida Senate would ask the federal government to consider increasing the size of the Florida National Guard.
SM 826, sponsored by State Senator Tom Wright (R-DeLand), would “impel the United States National Guard Bureau to examine the resource allocations of the Florida National Guard and allow an increase in its force structure.”
According to the text of the memorial, Florida’s National Guard totals are approximately 12,000 personnel, which represents a ratio of one guardsman for every Floridian. That ratio ranks 53 out of 54 American states and territories where there is a National Guard component.
The memorial is now to be considered by the Florida House and, if approved by the House, President Joe Biden (D), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA-12), and Florida’s congressional delegation will receive copies.
The memorial does not require the signature of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“We must increase the number of guardsmen for the protection of Florida, which has had the fifth-most-declared state emergencies over the last 70 years,” Wright said on the Senate floor. “The Florida National Guard is made up of many brave men and women who are heavily relied upon, and we must ensure that they have the necessary assets to respond.”
In February 2021, a bipartisan effort from members of Florida’s congressional delegation urged Washington officials to expand the size of the Florida National Guard. The effort came in the form of a letter co-authored by Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL-1), Representative Scott Franklin (R-FL-15), Representative Michael Waltz (R-FL-6), and Representative Stephanie Murphy (D-FL-7).
“The situation is exacerbated by the simple fact that the Florida National Guard, by nearly any metric, is not large enough. This means that individual guardsmen must respond to mission requirements again and again without enough rest or sufficient ability to rotate personnel.
Specifically, there are only 12,000 authorized members of the Florida National Guard, serving a geographically large state that is home to 21.5 million people — and growing daily. That is the second-worst guardsman-to-civilian ratio of the 54 National Guards for the states, the U.S. territories and the District of Columbia.”
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Grant Holcomb is a reporter at The Florida Capital Star and The Star News Network. Follow Grant on Twitter and direct message tips.
Photo “Florida National Guard” by The National Guard. CC BY 2.0.
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