Gov. Martin O’Malley told Maryland’s congressional delegation Thursday that the state needs help with paying for Iraq war- and military-related issues ranging from equipment for the state’s National Guard to veteran’s cemeteries.
While thanking the state’s congressional leaders for securing more than $800 million in National Guard and Reserve Equipment Account dollars for units across the country, O’Malley said the state’s Army National Guard has only half of its authorized equipment on hand. According to O’Malley, the state has a shortage of technical equipment such as large-capacity generators, interoperable radios and Humvees.
“Marylanders are serving our nation and our state in countries across the world,” O’Malley said. “However, we face a shortage of technical equipment our first responders need for an emergency that may occur here at home.”
O’Malley told Sens. Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin and representatives including Steny Hoyer, Chris Van Hollen and Roscoe Bartlett that the state has spent $800,000 in general funds to create a new “reintegration program” to help Guard members returning from overseas deployments to adjust to life at home.
State leaders are hoping to obtain federal dollars for first-responder radios that can work across jurisdictions, a computer-aided dispatch and records management project, and increased grants for state veteran cemeteries so they don’t have to limit or curtail burials.
Mikulski expressed concern the state was “picking up the slack” for the federal government.
“We’ve said a grateful nation will never forget [it’s servicepeople], but it seems like we have in the federal checkbook,” Mikulski said before pledging to secure an amendment in the next Iraq war appropriations that would address the needs of veterans and the National Guard.
O’Malley also asked for $28 million for highway improvements in Prince George’s, Harford, Anne Arundel and Montgomery Counties — to aid the state with adjusting to military Base Realignment and Closure projects occurring at Bethesda National Naval Hospital, Fort Meade and Aberdeen Proving Grounds.
