The Washington military department updated state legislators Thursday on federal deployments, a major unit conversion in the Army National Guard and budget impacts from continuing resolutions that are slowing military construction and cooperative agreements.

"Currently, about 400 service members from the Washington Army and Air National Guard are deployed around the globe on federal missions. This is roughly 5% of the Washington National Guard force structure," Jim Baumgartner, intergovernmental affairs and policy director for the Washington Military Department, told the Joint Committee on Veterans' & Military Affairs.

Baumgartner said the Washington Army National Guard's 81st Stryker Brigade was selected for transformation under a broader force modernization plan and "will transition from a Stryker Brigade combat team to a mobile combat team. This will be modernizing equipment and changing some roles and functions." He said the state was selected in part because of recruiting and retention metrics and that the change will bring equipment and manning adjustments and an overall end-strength change to the Washington Army National Guard, which he said is currently about 6,000 service members.

He told the committee the federal continuing resolutions in place for fiscal year funding make planning and execution harder by freezing new starts and concentrating appropriation-based spending into short windows when Congress finally passes budgets. "This affects funding levels," he said, and "it affects our ability to do military construction, delaying projects and thereby increasing costs and the state share thereof."

Baumgartner said the department has two capital projects in play for the current request cycle and that both are long-planned efforts; the department is seeking to finish those rather than start new construction. He also noted federal cooperative agreements are likely to shift toward greater state cost-share and administrative responsibility.

On other topics, Baumgartner said the state is maintaining the National Guard's State Partnership Program (currently Malaysia and Thailand) and adding the Republic of the Marshall Islands as a partner. He also described a recent convening requested by a tribal chief of police (Chief Sherman Pruitt) in which 23 tribal police chiefs participated; the military department hosted the event and partnered with the American Indian Health Commission.

Committee members asked for follow-up on the potential end-strength effects of transformation and for continued monitoring of funding impacts. No committee votes were taken; members said they will continue to track federal appropriations and grant timelines that affect state planning.