On Wednesday, a Senate committee in the state of Virginia voted down the Defend the Guard Act, legislation that would prohibit the deployment of the state’s National Guard to combat zones without a declaration of war from Congress, as required by the Constitution.
The bill was introduced in Virginia for the first time by House Delegate Nick Freitas and unanimously passed through the House in a vote on February 4. But it did not make it through the first hurdle in the Senate.
“Unfortunately, H.B. 2193 did not move past its Senate hearing in Virginia today. We witnessed remarkable progress for a first-time bill, with [Defend the Guard] receiving unanimous passage in the Virginia House of Delegates,” Bring Our Troops Home, the organization behind the legislation wrote on X.
The Virginia Senate’s General Laws and Technology Committee killed the bill in a vote of 10-5. “Defend the Guard Act died in Virginia Senate committee,” Freitas, a retired green beret, said after the vote.
Defend the Guard legislation has been introduced in multiple states this year, and Bring Our Troops Home needs volunteers to help push it across the finish line. Click here to volunteer for phone banking for Defend the Guard, and go to Defendtheguard.us to see if the legislation has been introduced in your state.
When Defend the Guard legislation is introduced, generals are always sent to discourage lawmakers from advancing it, meaning grassroots support is needed for it to succeed.
“The generals never fail to show up and apply pressure,” Diego Adrian Rivera, Director of Field Operations for Bring Our Troops Home, told Antiwar.com. “They never fail to call, to show up to testify, and threaten the lawmakers. Every time the grassroots fail to show up, the generals get their way.”
Generals are still being sent to work against the legislation despite Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth previously endorsing Defend the Guard. “In December our Chairman [Dan McKnight] had an extended meeting with Pete, confirming his enthusiastic support for [Defend the Guard],” Bring Our Troops Home wrote on X after Hegseth’s confirmation. “This is a game changer. 2025 is when we BRING OUR TROOPS HOME.”
