The National Guard Association of the United States, a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying organization that goes by NGAUS, said in a statement to Military.com that draft legislation approved March 15 by Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall seeks to "bypass the long-standing requirement in federal law for the Pentagon to obtain a governor's consent before transferring a National Guard unit to another branch of the military."
Any proposed legislation would ultimately need to be approved by Congress. The Air Force did not directly comment on the proposal prior to publication. Currently, there are approximately 1,000 Air National Guardsmen across 14 units operating space-related missions in Alaska, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, New York and Ohio, according to the association.
The draft legislative proposal submitted to Congress, which was reviewed by Military.com, is titled "Transfer To The Space Force of covered space functions of the Air National Guard of the United States" would "change the status of the unit from a unit of the Air National Guard of the United States to a unit of the United States Space Force; deactivate the unit; or assign the unit a new Federal mission," the text reads.