Wyden, Colleagues Introduce Bill to Rein in Abuse of National Guard in Domestic Deployments
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ron Wyden said today he has joined Senate colleagues to introduce legislation that would limit Donald Trump’s ability to deploy the National Guard into U.S. communities.
The No Troops in Our Streets Act gives Congress the ability to stop a military deployment at home with a simple majority of votes, at any time. The legislation would apply to the deployments to Los Angeles, Portland, and Chicago. If Trump invokes the Insurrection Act in the future, it would also apply to those deployments.
“Unnecessary deployments of troops to peaceful cities like Portland are hurting morale and military readiness, intimidating law-abiding citizens and wasting taxpayer money to satisfy Donald Trump’s authoritarian fantasies,” Wyden said. “While there are already clear legal and constitutional barriers to unjust military deployments on U.S. soil, the No Troops in Our Streets Act ensures Congress can quickly and effectively check any president who mobilizes troops without good cause.”
The legislation does not restrict state-level deployments ordered by governors, responses to natural disasters, or when the military is supporting certain specific law enforcement functions like securing the border. The bill also injects $1 billion in new resources to support public safety programs across the nation.
In recent months, Trump has used the U.S. military to patrol U.S. cities like Portland, Los Angeles and Washington D.C., an unprecedented and dangerous escalation of executive power. Trump has deployed, or tried to deploy, more than 7,000 U.S. troops to five U.S. cities, despite the strong objections of governors and mayors. He has also threatened to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act to authorize raids, arrests, and detentions by U.S. military forces in domestic communities.
The bill was led by U.S. Senator Elisa Slotkin, D-Mich. In addition to Wyden, the bill was also introduced by U.S. Senators Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.
The full bill is here.
Next Article Previous Article
