GovernmentExecutive.com

President Bush's proposal in his State of the Union address Tuesday to create a Civilian Reserve Corps would relaunch his administration's little-publicized attempt last year to create a volunteer corps to augment U.S. reconstruction and stabilization efforts in Iraq.

Bush's proposal had several senior lawmakers scratching their heads, especially those who have met repeatedly with the president to discuss his revised plans for Iraq. "It caught me a little bit by surprise," said Sen. John Warner, R-Va., who until recently chaired the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Warner said he would likely support such a program, which would give "older rascals like me" the opportunity to "get out and do something."

Civilian reserves, which would operate much like the military's reserves, would help "ease the burden on the armed forces" by creating a corps of volunteers who have "critical skills to serve on missions abroad when America needs them," Bush said.

Despite sounding new, the proposal has been kicking around in the administration for more than a year.

Efforts to set up a civilian volunteer corps have been under way in the State Department. The plan, according to department documents, is to build a volunteer corps of police officers, judges, civil administrators and governance and infrastructure efforts to help the military and civilian agencies in post-war peacekeeping efforts.

The State Department even tucked a $25 million request for the civilian reserves into the fiscal 2007 budget submitted to Congress last February. But Congress so far has given up trying to pass an appropriations bill covering the department, so any new programs, including the civilian corps, will not be getting needed startup funds this year.

Last year, the Senate approved by unanimous consent the creation of a civil reserve as part of the Reconstruction and Stabilization Civilian Management Act, sponsored by then-Foreign Relations Chairman Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and co-sponsored by Warner and others.

That bill, however, was referred to the House International Relations Committee, which took no action on it in the last, Republican-led Congress.

Meanwhile, a senior Defense Department official broached the idea of having the Pentagon create a civilian reserve to relieve the burden on troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, a House GOP aide recalled. This came up during an informal discussion with House Armed Services Committee staff members last fall.

"We're still waiting [after the president's speech] to find out details," the aide said. "Is it a State deal? Is it a DOD deal? A lot of questions have to be answered."

The State Department, however, appears to be the agency most likely to take the lead. According to a June 2006 Congressional Research Service report, department officials already are planning the reserve to fill a gap between permanent U.S. government employees, who deploy immediately in a crisis, and contractors, who take longer to hire, organize and send overseas.

The civilian reservists would deploy within 30 to 60 days, be treated as government workers, and be paid at a level comparable to federal employees performing the same or similar work. During their deployment, they would be held to the same ethics and other standards as government employees.

Attracting recruits to volunteer for dangerous missions, however, might be difficult, especially with contractor positions overseas often paying six-figure salaries or per diems of $1,000. The volunteers also would not have the same "re-employment rights" as members of the military Guard and Reserve, who are protected from discriminatory actions by their employers arising from their part-time military service.

COMMENTS

• When I read articles like this I want to puke. Civilian Reserves, give me a break. This administration is trying to remake civil service as if it were an axillary military organization. Great for enhanced performance, but what is being offered as compensation, the usual unending pay and benefits cuts. NSPS is just the latest PR effort to disguise a clever program of cuts to pay and retirement, employee rights, while claiming to build a flexible deployable workforce. When it is over I expect that all of civil service will be required to perform military service. Great to support a program of permanent war! Is this what the United States has come to? Bill Snoggs Posted November 6, 2007 11:26 PM
• Hey RDS, You have the right general idea. However, it isn't their children they are worried about - it's their own re-election they are protecting! Heck, the chickenhawks would make darn sure there were plenty of "deferments" for their loved ones - the unwashed masses would be the fodder... always have been and always will be! Let's see the Bush bloodline in harm’s way, how about the twins and/or all the nephews and nieces? Common George, have your family walk the talk! I have my honorable release from active duty, as does my brother, the two of three cousins that served, our father, five uncles and grandfather - how about you, Mr. President? Sorry folks, I know there are many, many other military families out there, it's just that I feel ill listening to the chickenhawks telling each other what "Great Americans" they are because they call in to a radio show - ugh. Cracked & Wired Posted February 5, 2007 1:50 PM
• On September 12, 2001, President Bush should have announced that every soldier currently in the National Guard and Reserves is welcome to go on active duty. We are going to stand up two additional divisions for the War on Terror. If he had done this, we would have had thousands of true volunteers (not Halliburton employees) signing up, as we did after Pearl Harbor attack, in 1941. And then today, five years later, we would not have the troop shortage and recruiting crisis we now face. But this, of course, never happened. As for this civilian "reservists" concept -- this is nothing more than a throw-away line put in a speech. He is smartly tiptoeing around the word “draft.” If a draft ever occurs (and it might someday, the way we're going) he can look back and say this wasn't his idea. I wanted a bunch of volunteers to step forward and help with nation building, etc. Vet Posted January 31, 2007 4:33 PM