WASHINGTON - Senator John F. Kerry has urged President Bush to "provide sufficient funds" in his new budget plan to repair the readiness of the Massachusetts National Guard after a federal commission revealed that frequent overseas deployments have left it with severe equipment shortages.
In a letter to the president Friday, the Massachusetts Democrat expressed "deep concern regarding the effects that active-duty combat tours are having on the Massachusetts National Guard's ability to respond to state emergencies."
"Given the critical nature of this situation," Kerry wrote, "I request that your fiscal year 2009 budget provide sufficient funds for new equipment, better training, and upgraded medical care and benefits for the brave men and women who are going the extra mile to protect us both overseas and at home."
Bush is scheduled to present to Congress tomorrow his federal budget request for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.
Kerry was responding to the final report Thursday of the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves, which was established by Congress in 2005.
The panel reported that combat tours to Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Balkans had left the 6,000-strong Massachusetts Army National Guard with 46 percent of its military equipment as of late 2007. It found that the Guard had just 40 percent of items such as trucks, radios, generators, and medical and engineering equipment needed to respond to a domestic catastrophe.
The Air National Guard in Massachusetts, which has almost 2,000 members, had 77 percent of its equipment, the commission found, one of the lowest equipment readiness rates in the nation.
The 400-page report was billed as the most comprehensive investigation of its kind in 60 years. It concluded that National Guard forces nationwide are insufficiently equipped to respond domestically to natural disasters or terrorist attacks, their primary mission.
On average, the Army National Guard, which is located in every state and territory, had 61 percent of its equipment on hand, the commission said.
National Guard officials did not dispute the equipment shortages in a briefing to Pentagon reporters Friday.
"Is it accurate? It's absolutely accurate," said Lieutenant General H. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau.
But he insisted that if it weren't for Defense Department action in recent years, the situation would be worse.
"Two years ago that map would have showed the National Guard at 40 percent" nationwide, not 61 percent, Blum said, crediting an "unprecedented, historic commitment of actually putting resources against that problem."
He said the Pentagon is on a "reasonable" path to repair the damage, which it has estimated will cost $45 billion through 2013.
But the commission, as well as Kerry, say that for the part-time Guard to meet its growing responsibilities at home and abroad it will need even more resources, not just money to replace equipment loaned to other units or damaged or lost in combat.
The Guard, they say, also needs new training and a far more comprehensive benefits package for the "citizen soldiers" and their families who have been hard hit by the frequent overseas deployments. Unlike their full-time counterparts, they do not have an extensive support network.
"The Guard and the people of Massachusetts deserve better," wrote Kerry, who is set to meet with the head of the Massachusetts National Guard this week.
But Pentagon officials oppose the commission's recommendation that the National Guard be used only for homeland defense.
Paul McHale, the assistant secretary for homeland defense, said Friday, "that is sharply at odds . . . with the 372-year history of the National Guard."
Added Blum: "If we were to follow the commission's recommendation to make the Guard exclusively a homeland defense force or a homeland security response force, we would not be able to defend this nation overseas."
Bender can be reached at bender@globe.com.
