SENSE OF THE CONGRESS ON GREATER USE OF THE RESERVE COMPONENTS OF THE ARMED FORCES

SEC. 1431. SENSE OF THE CONGRESS ON GREATER USE OF THE RESERVE COMPONENTS OF THE ARMED FORCES (a) Findings.— Congress makes the following findings: (1) The reserve components of the Armed Forces are an essential element of the national security establishment of the United States. (2) The overall reduction in the threat and the likelihood of continued fiscal constraints require the United States to increase use of the reserve components of the Armed Forces. (3) The Department of Defense has not adequately implemented the Total Force Policy since its inception in 1973. (4) The Department of Defense should shift a greater share of force structure and budgetary resources to the reserve components of the Armed Forces. (5) Expanding the reserve components is the most effective way to retain quality personnel as the force structure of the active components is reduced over the next five years. (6) The United States should recommit itself to the concept of the citizen soldier as a cornerstone of national defense policy for the future. (7) The President and the Secretary of Defense should take note of and be willing to exercise existing reserve call-up authority for the purpose of using reserve component forces to perform operational missions without the necessity for declaring a national emergency. 104 STAT. 1686 (b) Congressional Declaration.— In view of the findings expressed in subsection (a), Congress declares that— (1) the structure and strength of the current reserve components should be preserved; (2) the equipment levels in existing reserve component units should be increased to match their active duty counterparts; (3) selected missions of the active components of the Armed Forces should be increasingly transferred to the reserve components; (4) the equipment available to the units of the reserve components should be modernized; and (5) the integration of active component and reserve component units should be promoted as a means of achieving the Total Force Policy of the Department of Defense.