Cantwell seeks deployment rules changes

SEATTLE — Sen. Maria Cantwell met Sunday with National Guard and Reserve officials, family members and employers to discuss new uncertainties they face concerning deployment.

At issue is what she described as a Sept. 5 Bush administration change in deployment rules — basically defining deployment as beginning with arrival in Iraq, rather than with departure from home.

"There hasn’t been a lot of transparency on this," said Cantwell, D-Wash., after the Sunday afternoon session. "The administration just all of a sudden made this change."

Army officials have said the policy does not represent a change, though some National Guard and Reserve personnel were surprised by it. Some date the change from July, when 12-month duty in Iraq for the Guard and Reserves was announced by Gen. John Keane, then acting Army chief of staff.

The military has authority from President Bush to keep reservists on active duty for up to two years, and some have served that long. Most, however, had expected to return to civilian life after 12 months.

Cantwell plans to introduce an amendment next week to the $87 billion Iraq supplemental budget request that would define deployment as beginning when National Guard and Reserve personnel are activated, rather than when they actually arrive overseas — often a difference of weeks or even months.

"These people work so hard … you’ve got to make it more predictable. You’ve got to give them credit for the time they serve," she said.

Because Guard and Reserve personnel are leaving jobs and families, longer stints away represent "a much bigger hardship," Cantwell said.

"If you want to keep retention high, if you want to keep moral high, give them predictability about their time and their commitment and what it’s going to mean. Make every day count."

Her amendment also would require 45 days’ notice to Congress and affected personnel about such changes

"There were people who found out from their spouses," Cantwell said. "They thought they were coming back in a year and then found out their time being trained somewhere else didn’t even count," sometimes meaning months more away from home.

"These are trying times for them, their families, and employers," she was quoted as saying shortly before the roundtable discussion.

"They signed up with the understanding that their deployment started at the time of activation. Now the president has changed the rules on them in the middle of the game," Cantwell said.

"Deployment shouldn’t start when the boots are on the ground. It should start when the boots leave the house."

Both requirements in the amendment could be waived for emergency operational needs.