Vermont Military Department briefs Appropriations on FY26 budget, construction and recruitment challenges

Brigadier General Henry “Hank” Harder, deputy adjutant general, and Kim Fedeli, financial director for the State Military Department, briefed the Vermont House Appropriations Committee on Feb. 21 on the department’s FY26 budget priorities, ongoing deployments and readiness work, major construction projects and persistent recruiting shortfalls.

The presentation emphasized that the department’s budget is largely supported by federal funds while the state pays for specific matching costs and some state‑only programs such as the National Guard tuition benefit and the Joint Enlistment Enhancement Program. “The state of your guard is strong, both army and air,” Harder said, while Fedeli told the committee that about “88 percent of our spending is federal.”

Why it matters: the department manages both overseas military commitments and domestic emergency response, maintains armories and training areas that serve communities statewide, supports veterans’ services and administers recruitment and tuition benefits that affect retention and force size.

Most visible operations and deployments Harder said about 333 Vermont airmen were deployed across the globe, with the largest contingent forming part of an F‑35 aviation package based at Kadena Air Base in Japan. That aviation package completed a multinational exercise and operated for several weeks from Andersen (Anderson) Air Force Base on Guam before repositioning to Kadena, Harder said. He also described smaller Air Guard deployments to Central Command, Africa and Europe on roughly six‑month rotations and said the Vermont Army Guard’s recent Black Hawk medevac deployment in CENTCOM conducted more than 900 medevac missions.

Harder noted upcoming multinational training this summer (Immediate Response 25) that will place Vermont soldiers in Greece and North Macedonia as part of a NATO exercise to improve interoperability.

Recruiting and retention Committee members heard that recruiting remains a challenge. Harder said vacancies are concentrated among drill‑status (part‑time) Army Guard positions and “about a hundred” openings in the Air Guard. He described two state initiatives aimed at increasing enlistments: the Joint Enlistment Enhancement Program (JEEP), which provides a $1,000 state payment for qualifying recruits, and a partnered recruiting initiative with more than 20 Vermont employers that guarantees interviews for qualified Guard applicants. Fedeli and Harder said the JEEP program has grown since FY21; Fedeli told the committee that the FY26 budget includes a $65,000 line item to support it.

Tuition benefit and workforce incentives The presenters described the Vermont National Guard tuition benefit as a major retention and recruitment tool. Harder said the program now covers second bachelor’s degrees and master’s degrees in some cases and that the FY26 budget includes a $1.3 million line to fund the benefit. He also noted a pending state bill (referred to in the briefing as the “age 43” pension tax bill) that Guard leaders view as a way to help retain retirees and encourage veterans to remain in Vermont. Harder and Fedeli asked the committee to consider making some of the current tuition provisions permanent; several elements of the benefit were described in the briefing as sunsetting at the end of the state fiscal year unless the legislature acts.

Facilities and construction Fedeli described 11 major military construction projects now in design and said the department expects roughly $137 million in federal military construction funding over coming fiscal years. She gave the Linden Readiness Center as an example of a major project (about $20 million) that the department expects to be 100% federally funded, and said the department is acquiring land in Swanton for a Northwest Regional Readiness Center. The presenters said older armories such as Winooski are being demolished and remediated (contracts address PCBs in building materials), and that the St. Albans armory will likely be transferred out of the Military Department because the department cannot fully access some federal remediation grants.

Veterans services and other programs Fedeli said the department funds the state Veterans Affairs office, which includes six veteran service officer (VSO) positions; VSOs have helped veterans secure roughly $7 million in federal benefits in recent years. The department also supports youth STEM outreach through the STARBASE program (two sites serving fifth graders) and administers small veteran support grants funded by private donations.

Budget composition and federal interactions Fedeli told the committee that the majority of the Military Department’s budget is federal, and that the department continues to seek waivers and clarifications from federal agencies on personnel and pay issues. Harder described recent federal executive‑branch actions that generated requests for information to state Guard organizations and noted that Adjutant General Greg Knight and other adjutants general have requested exemptions for some federally funded technician positions as those federal processes are adjudicated. Fedeli said the department’s FY26 request includes typical increases for salaries and benefits and that some federal reimbursements and waivers have temporarily altered federal‑state matching behavior for a few programs.

Discussion and next steps Committee members asked about utility costs, domestic response funding and the timeline for construction projects. Fedeli said natural gas and utilities are an ongoing concern and that the department is seeking small savings elsewhere while requesting federal waivers for payroll costs where appropriate; she also listed the Linden project and the Swanton land acquisition as near‑term actions. No formal committee votes or actions on the department’s request were taken during the briefing.

Ending note The committee scheduled further budget work in the coming week; department staff said they are available for follow‑up questions and stakeholder briefings.