Emergency Response Authority Act

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3450 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 3450

  To provide authority and reimbursement for State disaster response 
                     duty, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           December 11, 2025

  Mr. Peters introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
              referred to the Committee on Armed Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To provide authority and reimbursement for State disaster response 
                     duty, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Emergency Response Authority Act''.

SEC. 2. NATIONAL GUARD: ACTIVE GUARD AND RESERVE DUTY IN RESPONSE TO A 
              STATE DISASTER.

    (a) In General.--Chapter 3 of title 32, United States Code, is 
amended by inserting after section 328 the following new section:
``Sec. 328a. Active Guard and Reserve duty: State disaster response 
              duty
    ``(a) Authority.--The chief executive of a State who has declared 
an emergency in such State due to a disaster, may, with the consent of 
the Secretary of Defense, order a member of the National Guard of such 
State, who is performing Active Guard and Reserve duty pursuant to 
section 328 of this title, to perform duties in response to, or in 
preparation for, such disaster. Duty performed under this section shall 
be referred to as `State disaster response duty'.
    ``(b) Requirements.--State disaster response duty performed 
pursuant to this section--
            ``(1) shall be on a reimbursable basis, in accordance with 
        subsection (c);
            ``(2) may be performed to the extent that the performance 
        of such duty does not interfere with the performance of the 
        member's primary Active Guard and Reserve duties of organizing, 
        administering, recruiting, instructing, and training the 
        reserve components; and
            ``(3) shall not exceed a total of 14 days per member per 
        calendar year, except that the Secretary of Defense may, if the 
        chief executive so requests before the end of the 14th such 
        day, authorize an extension of the duration of such duty, not 
        to exceed an additional--
                    ``(A) 7 days, if the Secretary determines that such 
                extension is appropriate; and
                    ``(B) 46 days if the Secretary determines that such 
                duty is in support of the response to a catastrophic 
                incident, as that term is defined in section 501 of the 
                Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 311).
    ``(c) Reimbursement.--(1) The Secretary of the military department 
concerned shall charge a State for the fully burdened costs of manpower 
for each day of State disaster response duty performed pursuant to this 
section.
    ``(2) Such charges shall be paid from the funds of the State of the 
requesting chief executive or from any other non-Federal funds.
    ``(3) Any amounts received by a Secretary of a military department 
under this section shall be credited, at the discretion of the 
Secretary of Defense, to--
            ``(A) the appropriation, fund, or account used to pay such 
        costs; or
            ``(B) an appropriation, fund, or account available for the 
        purposes for which such costs were incurred.
    ``(4) If the State of the requesting chief executive is more than 
90 days in arrears in reimbursing the Secretary of the military 
department concerned for State disaster response duty performed 
pursuant to this section, such duty may not be performed--
            ``(A) unless authorized by the Secretary of Defense; and
            ``(B) after the requesting chief executive obligates funds 
        for the amount in arrears.
    ``(d) Limitation of Liability.--While performing State disaster 
response duty under this section, a member of the National Guard is not 
an instrumentality of the United States with respect to any act or 
omission in carrying out such duty. The United States shall not be 
responsible for any claim or judgment arising from the use of a member 
of the National Guard under this section.
    ``(e) Definitions.--In this section:
            ``(1) The term `Active Guard and Reserve duty' has the 
        meaning given such term in section 101 of title 10.
            ``(2) The term `State' has the meaning given such term in 
        section 901 of this title.''.
    (b) Regulations.--Not later than 180 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall prescribe 
regulations under section 328a of such title, as added by subsection 
(a).
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