By AP/KWMU
St. Louis – Senator Kit Bond says the federal government will have to borrow more than a billion dollars to pay for National Guard equipment.
Bond says the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan combined with Hurricane Katrina have taxed supplies of trucks, communication equipment and night vision goggles.
The Missouri Republican is asking the Bush Administration for $1.3 billion to pay for those things.
He says national guards now have a dual mission: to fight wars overseas, and to provide disaster response at home.
"There are those who are saying we need to have a federal response to these disasters rather than a national guard,'" Bond said. "My response is, 'Get off of it. We've got the response.'"
Bond says guard members make up nearly half of the U.S. troops in Iraq. Units from all 50 states also provided Gulf Coast hurricane response.