Hurricane Helene was the deadliest hurricane to strike the mainland United States since Katrina in 2005, devastating the American southeast with close to $80 billion in estimated damages and killing 219 people.

In Tennessee, which saw severe flooding in its most eastern counties and suffered 18 deaths, more than 580 Tennessee National Guardsmen were mobilized 

Simultaneously, 700 Tennessee National Guardsmen were beginning their mobilization for a year-long deployment 7,000 miles away.

Members of the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment, Tennessee’s largest Guard unit, left for Fort Bliss, Texas on September 28, the day after Hurricane Helene hit their home state. Weeks later, they completed their transition to the Middle East where they’re currently participating in Operation Spartan Shield.

The side-by-side headlines provoked a storm of outrage on social media. “A third of the state is currently underwater. Why are they being shipped overseas instead of being deployed to help their own people?” asked Sean Davis, co-founder of the Federalist.

Steve Cortes, a media commentator and former spokesman for Donald Trump’s presidential campaigns, posted “Ok, we have a MAJOR storm event in parts of Eastern Tennessee…and we are sending troops to help ultra-wealthy countries in the Persian Gulf?!” Cortes asked Governor Bill Lee to “reverse this decision, please,” but once a National Guard unit has been mobilized by the president under Title 10, it’s out of the governor’s hands. 

But new legislation introduced in Tennessee and dozens of other states this year seeks to prevent future National Guard deployments of this nature and to reorient the federal government’s priorities back to the United States.

The Defend the Guard Act would prohibit the deployment of a state’s National Guard into active combat overseas unless Congress has first voted to declare war. This is the same requirement found in Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, but one the federal government has ignored for seventy-five years. The bill does not interfere with domestic Title 32 deployments or overseas training, but would be an effective stopgap measure preventing the president from mobilizing the National Guard into an undeclared war.

Tennessee’s HB 129 is being championed by freshman State Representative Michele Reneau of Signal Mountain. “I think the priorities for the National Guard should be here at home, first of all. And when we have a natural disaster, that’s where our troops should have gone initially,” Reneau told The American Conservative. “But it’s definitely disappointing that our resources didn’t get diverted at home here where we have an immediate need.”

Legislation of this type has been endorsed by both Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. But like so many other of the Trump administration’s reforms, it’s being met with strenuous opposition by the permanent bureaucracy and Pentagon establishment underneath these appointments.

The National Guard Bureau in Washington has launched a full frontal assault on Defend the Guard legislation being introduced in state houses, including pressuring lawmakers and having adjutant generals appear before committee hearings in full dress uniform.

“They have been present at the Capitol and visiting my cosponsors on the bill to lobby against the bill and communicate that we would potentially lose federal funding or four KC-135s that have been on the table since, maybe last year as well,” Reneau explained.

HB 129 and its companion SB 156 have a dozen House cosponsors and three Senate sponsors, including Senator Rusty Crowe, a Vietnam veteran who represents Carter, Johnson, and Washington Counties, the three most affected by Hurricane Helene.

The opposition’s primary argument is that passage would result in a reprisal by the Pentagon in the form of removing federal funding and equipment. USC § 108 specifies that a state’s National Guard funding can only be withheld if it does not meet training and readiness standards under Title 32; legislation like HB 129 does not affect Title 32 missions, and there exists no mechanism to defund a National Guard out of punishment related to Title 10. If attempted without congressional approval, this unprecedented action would violate multiple federal laws such as the Impoundment Control Act of 1974. Further, multiple members of Congress have publicly said that defunding a state’s National Guard would be a political impossibility.

But the threat (even worded as conjecture) and the imposition of a military figure with one or two stars on their shoulder into the legislative process can sometimes be enough to squash local efforts.

“I have questions about whether their being here in uniform lobbying against the bill potentially violates some sort of [restriction],” said Reneau. “Something I feel is not completely kosher about them being specifically in uniform and lobbying against this bill.”

The legal reasoning presented by the National Guard Bureau is that adjutant generals are state employees not subject to federal anti-lobbying statutes and their lobbying for or against legislation, even in military dress and using taxpayer money, does not violate DoD Directive 1344.10. At a minimum, it’s difficult to argue that this interpretation does not violate the spirit of the law.

One of the Volunteer State’s largest (literally) supporters of Defend the Guard is Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs.

“For me it’s a way to put America First, to hopefully start limiting some of the military adventurism that we’ve seen, and frankly keep our boys and girls out of harm’s way,” Jacobs said about HB 129, recounting that a graduate of a local Knoxville High School was one of the soldiers killed during the evacuation from Afghanistan.

Before his entry into politics, the 7-foot tall Jacobs made his bones as the legendary professional wrestler Kane, and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2021.

A self-identified Ron Paul Republican for many years, Jacobs has been a consistent advocate for less meddling overseas: “I come from a military family. My dad spent twenty-one years between the Navy and the Air Force. Part of the reason that I feel the way that I do is because of that history, because of knowing what my dad did.”

East Tennessee has formed an unexpected bastion of conservative non-interventionism for decades, and Mayor Jacobs is only the latest iteration. His congressional district was the longtime seat of Rep. Jimmy Duncan, one of the few Republicans to vote against the Iraq War. Today it’s represented by Jacobs’ mayoral predecessor Tim Burchett, an outspoken critic of American involvement in Ukraine and the Middle East.

“We are a different place, and I say that with great affection,” Jacobs told TAC. “I heard someone once say that in Appalachia, we value freedom over wealth.”

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“They understand, especially Congressman Duncan and Congressman Burchett, they understand there’s a cost, not only obviously in lives but also in treasure,” he continued. “And part of the reason that our country has accumulated thirty-six and a half trillion dollars in national debt is because of foreign adventurism; and not only wars but also again foreign aid that goes all around the world, sometimes to places that have less debt than we do.”

Last week a Defend the Guard bill unanimously passed its Senate committee in Georgia, another state affected by Hurricane Helene. A hearing for HB 129 has been scheduled for Wednesday before the Tennessee House Public Service Subcommittee.

Reneau highlighted the groundswell of popular support for the measure: “Several people have reached out and said they were excited about the bill. They thought it was just a great show of reinforcing states’ rights and the ability for the state to push back on the federal government and just hold their feet to the fire on their constitutional duties. In fact I think that’s always a good effort.”