While Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt joined governors for every other state in opposing the Air Force’s move to transfer the Air National Guard to the Space Force, so far, the state’s congressional delegation has not joined dozens of others in the Senate and House fighting the proposal.
Gov. Stitt was among leaders of 53 states, commonwealths and territories who recently wrote Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and voiced their opposition to the plan. They argued such a transfer would undermine their authority within their states.
A similar effort against the move was led by Colorado Democratic Congressman Jason Crow who is also a founding co-chair of the Space Force Caucus. In a letter to leaders of the Armed Services Committees in the Senate and the House, Crow and 56 Representatives and 29 senators begged them to reject the plan which is formally known as Legislative Proposal 480 in the Fiscal Year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act.
No Oklahoma Representatives or Senators signed the letter either in support of Gov. Stitt or against the Air Force proposal.
“The recently released proposal by the Air Force seeks to transfer members of the National Guard who perform spacer missions and designate them as “part-timers” under a full-time Space Force without regard to governor authority. In doing so, the Air Force intends to disregard portions of Section 104 of Title 32, which states that no change in the branch, organization or allotment of a unit can be made without the approval of the governor, and section 18238 of title 10, which places limitations on the relocation of the Army and Air National Guard units without the consent of the governor.”
Those did sign the letter called it a “deeply flawed legislative proposal put forward by the US Air Force” and said it would undermine the National Guard system.
“The original intent of the National Guard was to have a force ready to respond to the needs of their state and country. Because of this, authority was placed in the hands of each state’s individual governor.”