Committee advances bill to move governor’s horse and foot guards out of state military department amid debate

The Veterans and Military Affairs Committee voted March 11 to send House Bill 6440, concerning the organized militia and the governor’s guards, to the House floor after lengthy debate about preserving historical units and protecting military readiness.

The bill, as presented by committee leadership, would remove the governor’s horse and foot guards from the statutory structure of the state military department and create a path for those units to operate under private or nonprofit arrangements while preserving certain ceremonial functions. Committee members debated an amendment, LCO 6204, that would have delayed implementation by a year, allowed the guards to organize as private entities that could be reactivated by the governor, required leasing of existing properties to the organizations, shifted liabilities to the guards,…