District of Columbia National Guard troops who are deployed as part of President Donald Trump’s federal law enforcement intervention in the nation’s capital have had their orders extended through December, a National Guard official said.
The main purpose of the extension is to ensure that any D.C. Guard members out on the streets of Washington will continue to have uninterrupted benefits and pay for a mission that seems likely to persist for months, the official said.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media, said that while the extension doesn’t mean that all 950 D.C. Guard troops now deployed will serve until the end of December, it is a strong indication that their role is not winding down anytime soon…
Typically, Guard members need to be on active orders for more than 30 days to qualify for benefits like a housing allowance or health care, and issuing multiple extensions to those orders can sometimes cause interruptions.