Reserve Component Personnel Issues: Questions and Answers (CRS Report for Congress)
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| Release Date |
Revised Nov. 2, 2021 |
| Report Number |
RL30802 |
| Report Type |
Report |
| Authors |
Lawrence Kapp, Specialist in Military Manpower Policy; Barbara Salazar, Torreon Information Research Specialist |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
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Summary:
The Constitution provides Congress with broad powers over the Armed Forces, including the
power to "to raise and support Armies," "to provide and maintain a Navy," "to make Rules for the
Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces" and "to provide for organizing, arming,
and disciplining the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the
Service of the United States.... " In the exercise of this constitutional authority, Congress has
historically shown great interest in various issues that bear on the vitality of the reserve
components, such as funding, equipment, and personnel policy. This report is designed to provide
an overview of key reserve component personnel issues.
The term “Reserve Component” refers collectively to the seven individual reserve components of
the Armed Forces: the Army National Guard of the United States, the Army Reserve, the Navy
Reserve, the Marine Corps Reserve, the Air National Guard of the United States, the Air Force
Reserve, and the Coast Guard Reserve. The purpose of these seven reserve components, as
codified in law at 10 U.S.C. §10102, is to “provide trained units and qualified persons available
for active duty in the armed forces, in time of war or national emergency, and at such other times
as the national security may require, to fill the needs of the armed forces whenever more units and
persons are needed than are in the regular components.”
During the Cold War era, the reserve components were a manpower pool that was rarely tapped.
From 1945 to 1989, reservists were involuntarily activated by the federal government four times,
an average of less than once per decade. Since the end of the Cold War, the nation has relied more
heavily on the reserve components. Reservists have been involuntarily activated for contingency
operations by the federal government six times since 1990, an average of about once every five
years, including large-scale mobilizations for the Persian Gulf War (1990-1991) and in the
aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks (2001-present). Additionally, starting in FY2014,
the Services began involuntarily activating reservists under a new authority for pre-planned
missions in support of Combatant Commanders.
This report provides insight to reserve component personnel issues through a series of questions
and answers that address:
How reserve component personnel are organized (questions 2 and 4);
How many people are in each of the different categories of the reserve
component (question 3);
How reserve component personnel have been and may be used (questions 1, 5, 6,
7, 9, and 11);
How reserve component personnel are compensated (questions 8 and 10);
The types of legal protections that exist for reserve component personnel
(question 12); and
Recent changes in reserve component pay and benefits made by Congress
(question 13).
