Sen. McSally calls for more federal assistance for AZ National Guard

Reps. Debbie Lesko, Andy Biggs, David Schweikert, and Paul Gosar joined McSally on the letter to the President

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - U.S. Senator Martha McSally, along with other prominent Arizona Republicans are asking President Trump to continue current levels of federal cost-sharing for the Arizona National Guard.

To date, the Arizona national guard has provided logistical support in the form of distribution of personal protective equipment (PPE) across the state during the COVID-19 crisis.

The service-members have also assisted state food banks ensuring citizens in need have access to food during this crisis.

On average, they have set up at least four COVID-19 testing sites per day around the state since testing became available.

Senator McSally spoke to News 11’s Cody Lee on Friday, she explains why it’s impacting locals.

“Our National Guard has been doing herculean work this year, this is a very challenging year on so many fronts, in order to, you know when I was down at Yuma was working with them at the food bank,” McSally said.

“We've been leading on an effort to make sure that to ask for the federal government to take up all the costs and not have the state have to have any of that share of the cost so I led a letter with a delegation, asking for the administration to waive the cost-sharing,” the Senator added.

According to the Arizona congressional delegation, without continued full federal cost-share, the Arizona National Guard would face making the difficult decision of reducing missions that benefit the public.

Read the full letter to the President below.

Dear Mr. President:
 
The Arizona Congressional Delegation wants to thank you for your continued support of our state’s National Guard response to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. We are proud of their many accomplishments, which could not have occurred without your continued authorization of the federal cost share.
 
Maintaining the one hundred percent federal cost-share for Arizona National Guard units will allow them to continue to execute missions vital to our state and the Republic’s response to the COVID-19 threat. To date the Arizona National Guard has provided logistical support in the form of distribution of PPE across the state and aide to state food banks ensuring our citizens in need have access to food during this crisis. On average, they have also set up four COVID-19 testing sites per day around the state. These efforts have supported the economic reopening of rural and tribal communities.
 
There is still significant work to be done to combat COVID-19 in Arizona and throughout the country. As Operation Warp Speed advances forward our Guardsmen are already planning to support mass distribution of the vaccine once it is made available. They are also planning for the reopening of our schools and to support requests from our rural and less financially flexible districts for testing and/or sanitation support.
 
Without continued full federal cost-share, the Arizona National Guard will face making the difficult decision of reducing mission sets to align with available state resources. Food banks, and support to them, are particularly in high demand in Arizona due to the economic impacts COVID-19 has had on our tourism and service industries, resulting in higher unemployment. There will be additional necessary reductions to our support for on-going testing efforts that are vital to re-opening our state, communities, and schools as well as needed to be able to quickly respond in the event of a future and likely outbreak.
 
We ask that you continue your support for our National Guard forces and maintain full federal support levels until these vital missions are no longer needed.