Brownback disputes Kansas Guard shortages

updated 11:31 a.m. ET May 8, 2007

WASHINGTON - Republican presidential candidate Sam Brownback disputed claims by Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius that a deadly Kansas tornado exposed holes in National Guard readiness caused by the Iraq war.

Sebelius said Monday that Kansas is missing about half its National Guard trucks and many well-trained personnel that could have helped respond to last weekend's tornado in Greensburg, Kan. The twister killed at least 10 people and razed the farming town.

"The issue for the National Guard is the same wherever you go in the country. Stuff that we would have borrowed is gone. It's gone across the country," she said Monday.

Brownback said Tuesday that local officials and the Kansas National Guard commander all told him they have the resources needed to respond.

"That's what really got me, is her saying that," Brownback said in an interview.

"So I asked, privately and publicly, the adjutant general, do you have the equipment you need?" he said. "Because if you don't, we're going to hit Fort Riley and McConnell (Air Force Base) and other places to make sure we have all the equipment we need to respond to disasters. Everybody there said no, we have the equipment we needed."

He added: "I think what we need to do is to focus on what we need here now, and not draw a broader political question in. We've got a disaster, and we need to all pull together to get everything we need from the state and the federal for the local need."

After visiting the town Monday, the Kansas senator said he asked about resources because, "I think FEMA has a lot of proving to do after Katrina."

President Bush intends to visit Greensburg on Wednesday.

National Guard concerns
As governor, Sebelius has control over her state's National Guard and has repeatedly raised concerns about shortages caused by the Iraq war.

Slide show   Twister strikes View images from Greensburg, which was reduced to rubble by a deadly tornado.

She asked President Bush about the shortages in person last year when he visited Topeka, Kan.

"He assured me that he had additional equipment in his budget a year ago. What the Defense Department said then, and continues to say, is that states will get about 90 percent of what they had," Sebelius said. "Meanwhile, it doesn't get any better. I'm at a loss."

Maj. Gen. Tod Bunting, the state's adjutant general, said the Kansas National Guard was equipped to about 40 percent of its necessary levels, down from the 60 percent it had at the start of the war. About 850 soldiers have deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.

"It just leaves you pretty tight," he said. "We're fine for now."

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