Governors Challenge Cuts In National Guard Funds

Leavitt Says States Unprepared for Pandemic

Secretary Mike Leavitt, left, greets Gov. Mitt Romney (R), right, at the winter meeting of the National Governors Association. (By Charles Dharapak -- Associated Press)

The winter meeting of the National Governors Association opened here yesterday with state executives determined to challenge Bush administration officials over proposed cuts in Pentagon funding for the National Guard and their potential impact on homeland security.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld will meet privately with the governors tomorrow amid escalating concerns that the states have been shortchanged by the long Guard deployments in Iraq and by what governors see as disproportionate cuts in Guard funding.

Earlier this month, the governors signaled their displeasure with the Pentagon's new budget -- which called for a reduction in National Guard troop strength -- by sending a letter of protest. That brought a quick decision to rescind the proposed cut. But governors said they still have many questions about what the Pentagon is planning.

Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne (R), who met earlier with Rumsfeld and encouraged him to speak with all the governors at the NGA meeting, said states may not be able to respond adequately to natural disasters or terrorist attacks at home if the equipment shipped to Iraq with National Guard units is not replenished and if other Guard funding is reduced. "This is a formula for disaster," he said in an interview yesterday.

Governors have complained about the impact of long Guard deployments in Iraq, but the issue has become more acute with the administration's budget. The governors will meet with President Bush tomorrow at the White House, but it is not known whether they will raise the Guard issue with him or save it for Rumsfeld.

The controversy over the National Guard is one of several big issues on the agenda for the four-day meeting. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt sounded a grim call to arms to the states yesterday, warning that the nation is "overdue and unprepared" for a pandemic.

Leavitt also told the governors that, because of the potential scope of a pandemic, state and local governments should not assume that the federal government will have the resources to help every affected locality. "The message that has to be sounded by the country is this: Any community that fails to prepare on the assumption that at some point the federal government can come in to the rescue at the last moment does not acknowledge the complexity of this situation and would be sadly wrong," he said.

Leavitt also offered a sobering message about the impact of the health care crisis in America. The combination of spiraling costs for health care and the absence of health insurance for increasing numbers of Americans is gobbling up a growing percentage of the nation's gross domestic product, he said. Left unchecked, those trends will cost the United States its leadership role in the global economy.

"Either we change, or we will be eliminated from the competition," he said.

Leavitt's messages underscored the seriousness of the issues on the governors' agenda. Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R), chairman of the NGA, has devoted the opening days of the conference to promoting greater awareness of the costs of the growing health crisis caused by obesity through his "Healthy America" initiative.

Many states have begun to institute programs aimed at encouraging healthier lifestyles and more preventive health care, in part to try to control the costs of Medicaid, which continue to strain their budgets. Huckabee has become a national leader in this effort after losing more than 100 pounds. His physician had warned him of serious health problems if he did not reduce his weight.

The uproar over the administration's decision to allow a Dubai company to take over the operation of six U.S. seaports also drew the governors' attention. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, said it would be best to withdraw the agreement.

The port issue has drawn criticism from Republican and Democratic lawmakers.

Huckabee said the governors association would take no official position but said elected officials in both parties were justified in challenging the administration, given the outcry over the agreement.

Staff writer David S. Broder contributed to this report.