National Guard Bureau NGB

The National Guard descends from the colonial militias and is unique among American military forces in serving both the states and the nation. The Militia Act of 1903 began bringing state militias under federal standards, a Militia Bureau was created in 1908, and it was renamed the National Guard Bureau in 1933. Today the bureau is a joint activity of the Defense Department, and its chief, a four-star general, has been a full member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff since 2012.

The bureau does not command the Guard. Its role is to administer federal policy, funding, and equipment for the Army National Guard and Air National Guard and to serve as the channel of communication between the Pentagon and the fifty-four state and territorial Guard organizations, each led by an adjutant general who reports to a governor. Together the two components have more than four hundred thousand members, most of them part-time citizen soldiers and airmen.

Guard members usually serve under state control, either in state status or under Title 32 of the U.S. Code, which lets governors command them with federal funding, for missions like disaster response and civil unrest. The President can also federalize them under Title 10 for war or national emergencies. In 2025 the President federalized Guard troops and deployed them in Los Angeles, Washington, and other cities over some governors' objections, prompting lawsuits over the limits of presidential authority and the Posse Comitatus Act.