Ohio National Guard units resume their training schedules this weekend. Several thousand members of the Ohio Army National Guard were idled in September due to Congress inaction on a new federal budget. Steve Toth is a spokesman for the Ohio National Guard. Were back with a new fiscal year. Were currently under a continuing resolution from Congress. So theyre funding basically up until December 11th with the same funding line that they had last year," says Toth.
Toth says there is some concern if a budget is not reached by the end of the year. He explains some of the guard members rely on the several hundred dollars they earn for the drills to pay bills. Toth says some units did conduct training drills last month because they will soon deploy overseas. There are about 17,000 total Ohio National Guard members.