S. 4858

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 4858 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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119th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 4858

To provide for a National Guard Rural Revival and Modernization Plan.

_______________________________________________________________________

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

June 23, 2026

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

_______________________________________________________________________

A BILL

To provide for a National Guard Rural Revival and Modernization Plan.

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 ``Alaska National Guard Rural 
Community Revival Act''.

SEC. 2. NATIONAL GUARD RURAL COMMUNITY REVIVAL.

(a) Strategy and Implementation Plan Required.--Not later than 90 
days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the 
Army, in coordination with the Chief of the National Guard Bureau, 
shall develop a comprehensive strategy and roadmap to optimize Army 
National Guard readiness, force posture, and infrastructure in remote 
or isolated areas to include the Arctic. The strategy shall take into 
consideration the posture and plans of the United States Northern 
Command as well as Golden Dome for America in the assessment and 
development of the strategy, to ensure infrastructure investments meet 
homeland defense requirements and maximize operational effectiveness. 
The strategy shall be known as the ``Army National Guard Rural Revival 
and Modernization Plan'' (referred to in this section as the ``Plan'').
(b) Elements of the Plan.--The Plan required under subsection (a) 
shall include, at a minimum, the following:
(1) Infrastructure review.--A comprehensive audit and 
assessment of all National Guard armories, readiness centers, 
training support centers, and ranges within remote or isolated 
areas. The audit should include an assessment of necessary 
facilities improvements and include a plan for--
(A) joint-force and extreme-cold-weather tactical 
training, including integrated survival, mobility, 
logistics, and combat operations specific to degraded 
and contested Arctic environments;
(B) forward-operating logistical hubs, cold-weather 
equipment staging, and intra-theater supply-chain 
distribution points;
(C) emergency management, disaster response, and 
homeland defense staging zones; and
(D) communications nodes and remote command-and-
control capabilities.
(2) End-strength and billet optimization strategy.--A 
feasible plan to address and fill critically vacant, 
unassigned, or under-strength National Guard billets within the 
designated regions to meet increasing operational tempo 
(OPTEMPO). The optimization plan shall include--
(A) an analysis of recruitment and retention 
barriers unique to rural, isolated, or high-cost 
geographic areas;
(B) a targeted marketing, recruitment, and 
localized incentives framework, including specialized 
remote duty allowances, signing bonuses, and 
educational stipends, designed to source personnel 
directly from local and rural communities; and
(C) a potential rotational assignment framework to 
temporarily bridge immediate operational readiness gaps 
while permanent personnel pipelines are materialized to 
include associated funding.
(3) Dual-use center modernization blueprint.--A 
comprehensive capitalization and modernization plan for 
existing multi-mission, dual-use facilities. The blueprint 
shall--
(A) identify specific structural and technological 
upgrades necessary to sustain prolonged, multi-domain 
operations in austere environments, predicated on a 
comprehensive cyber-resilience and vulnerability 
assessment of the existing operational technology at 
installations and facilities, with an emphasis on--
(i) grid resilience, microgrid integration, 
and continuous primary power capabilities under 
extreme environmental degradation;
(ii) communications modernization, 
including secure tactical satellite integration 
and redundant high-latitude network systems;
(iii) hangar, maintenance bay, and cold-
storage runway and housing upgrades to handle 
modern tactical, rotary-wing, and autonomous 
aerial platforms, and personnel; and
(iv) dual-use airfield infrastructure 
reutilization and expansion of existing runways 
to accommodate modern military and civilian 
aircraft; and
(B) ensure all proposed command and control (C2) 
and facility infrastructure is engineered to operate 
seamlessly within Denied, Degraded, Intermittent, or 
Limited environments, incorporating resilient closed 
and restricted network architectures.
(c) Commingling and Private-Sector Leveraging Planning Framework.--
In developing the facility expansion and modernization elements of the 
Plan, the Secretary of the Army shall evaluate and identify 
opportunities to leverage enhanced use lease (EUL) authorities or enter 
into public-private partnerships. The Plan shall--
(1) include specific strategies to co-locate dual-use 
commercial, community, or telecommunications infrastructure 
within National Guard footprints to lower Federal 
infrastructure cost premiums and enhance installation 
resilience; and
(2) establish or clarify statutory data-sharing authorities 
and indemnification for the rapid exchange of cyber threat 
intelligence, risk assessments, and incident response data 
between the Department of Defense and the co-located commercial 
entities.
(d) Direct Funding and Minor Construction Threshold 
Recommendations.--The Plan shall include an assessment of funding 
mechanisms and potential legislative adjustments required to execute 
the infrastructure developments, conversions, and modifications 
identified under the Plan, including an evaluation of how the Secretary 
may utilize funds available for unspecified minor military construction 
under section 2805 of title 10, United States Code.
(e) Congressional Briefings and Reporting.--
(1) Initial briefing.--Not later than 180 days after the 
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Army 
and the Chief of the National Guard Bureau shall provide an 
interim briefing to the congressional defense committees on the 
initial findings of the armory audit and the initial personnel 
recruitment milestones.
(2) Final report.--Concurrently with the submission of the 
President's budget request for the upcoming fiscal year 
following the completion of the Plan, the Secretary of the Army 
shall submit to the congressional defense committees a formal 
report detailing the finalized strategy.
(f) Congressional Defense Committees Defined.--In this Act, the 
term ``congressional defense committees'' has the meaning given the 
term in section 101(a) of title 10, United States Code.
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