Members of the West Virginia National Guard patrol around the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on Aug. 26, 2025. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration’s $605 million funding request for the National Guard’s ongoing deployment in Washington is raising questions among appropriators on Capitol Hill.
Top Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee on Friday asked the National Guard Bureau chief for a cost breakdown of the deployment and how it has impacted the force’s ability to train for its traditional role of reacting to disasters and supporting combat operations overseas.
“Every day and every dollar spent keeping the National Guard here takes away from where they are needed elsewhere,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, of Connecticut, the committee’s ranking member, during a hearing on the Guard’s budget.
The White House’s funding request is for fiscal year 2027, which begins on Oct. 1, implying an extended deployment of the National Guard in the nation’s capital. Several news reports have said Trump intends to maintain the deployment through the end of his second term, on Jan. 20, 2029.
He first mobilized the Guard in August, declaring a crime emergency in Washington, and said this year that he “never” wants to withdraw it.
“People, they look, they say, ‘We feel so good, we feel so safe. We see these beautiful, strong people, and they’re so nice,’ ” Trump said last month. “They help. They open the doors for people. They carry bags. They pick up paper when they see paper on the ground.”
Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security Committee estimated in a report in February that the deployment had cost taxpayers more than $330 million and was projected to cost $602 million per year.
In addition to the $605 million requested for the Guard’s mobilization for the “safeguarding” of Washington, the Trump administration is also seeking $216 million for a National Guard Reaction Force to “respond to incidents requiring defense support of civil authorities.”
Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., asks questions at a House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense on Friday, April 17, 2026, in Washington. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)
Rep. Betty McCollum, of Minnesota, the top Democrat on the defense appropriations subcommittee, said she wanted more information about funding for the reaction force, a specially trained team of soldiers and airmen that can quickly provide security, roadblocks and checkpoints, civil disturbance control and infrastructure protection.
She also asked Gen. Steven Nordhaus, chief of the National Guard Bureau, how the prolonged deployment in Washington was sustainable, saying, “picking up waste in the District of Columbia does not prepare anyone for conflicts that could arise in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.”
“The $605 million in the request is all coming at the expense of something else that the National Guard will not be doing,” she said.
Gen. Steven Nordhaus, chief of the National Guard Bureau, testifies at a House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense on Friday, April 17, 2026, in Washington. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)
Nordhaus said the Guard is working on receiving reimbursements from other agencies, including the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security, and is committed to fulfilling all of its obligations.
“We will continue to work with this committee, and we look forward to making sure that we can do all the mission sets that we’ve been directed to do and then also make sure that we can provide all the statutory training to the National Guard, because we know how critical it is,” he said.
The deployment to Washington has been criticized by Democrats but remains popular among Republicans.
Rep. Jake Ellzey, R-Texas, a former Navy fighter pilot, on Friday said he understood the presence of Guard members in the capital causes some “hard feelings” but said he was glad to see them walking around and protecting the city.
“They’re the nicest people on the planet,” he said. “They have other jobs, they have families that they’re sacrificing time with to keep order, and they’ve done a good job.”
