Kuleana: From the Garden Isle to Capitol Hill — a year of Reserve Component advocacy

By Matthew Schwartzman, ROA Director of Legislation and Military Policy

My trip began at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu—named for the Medal of Honor recipient and longest-serving sitting U.S. senator at his death, who lost his right arm fighting with the storied 442nd Regimental Combat Team in World War II.

Sen. Inouye was also the founding champion of the TriService Nursing Research Program (TSNRP), a lifelong commitment that, by his own account, traced back to the military nurses who saved his life on and after the battlefield. The story has been told often: at the field hospital, a surgeon shook his head at Inouye’s bedside and was prepared to move on, until a nurse intervened with the words, “No, I think this one is going to make it.” Inouye made it.

So did TSNRP, which he was instrumental in establishing in 1992 and in funding through every appropriations cycle until his death. Continued funding for TSNRP remains a standing ROA priority and had been the subject of meetings held just weeks prior to the trip. Before I had even reached Kaua‘i, the work was already there to greet me.

From Honolulu, I flew on to the Garden Isle. Watching the Pacific roll into a crescent of green and gold, I found myself think­ing (not for the first time on the trip) about Capitol Hill.

Hawaii has a way of doing that. (Rest assured, I also spent plenty of time enjoying the island. Island time, it turns out, is very real.) The islands invite reflection, and Kaua‘i in particular pulls you out of the daily churn and asks you to consider the longer view. As I made my way along the Nā Pali Coast, through Waimea Canyon, and into the quiet cor­ners of the island, I kept returning to a Hawaiian word I had only recently e n c o u n t e r e d : kuleana.

Kuleana has no precise English equivalent. It means responsibil­ity, but more than that. It means a sacred duty bound up with privilege—the recognition that the work entrusted to you is not merely a job, but a charge.

For those of us who advocate on behalf of the Reserve Component, kuleana is the right word—and not, I think, by acci­dent. The American Reserve tradition begins with the Minute Man: the citizen who keeps his musket above the mantle and answers when the alarm bell rings. That spirit lives in the hearts and minds of all Americans, and most concretely in the men and women of today’s Reserve Components, who set down their civilian lives to serve when called. To advocate for them—to ensure the bureaucracy of their service does not betray the spirit of it—is itself a charge. A duty. A kuleana.

When I last wrote in these pages for the 2025 edition, I had just testified before the House and Senate Committees on Veterans’ Affairs, and the 119th Congress was still finding its footing. What follows is an accounting of the time since—a year in which the Reserve Organization of America has helped move long-standing priorities from aspiration into law and laid the groundwork for more.

I’ll structure what comes next around a few Hawaiian concepts that, the more I sat with them, seemed to describe what we have been doing all along.

Kuleana—sacred duty

Duty Status Reform Act introduced. In late March, Reps. Gil Cisneros (D-Calif.) and Jack Bergman (R-Mich.) introduced the bipartisan Duty Status Reform Act—the first codifiable legislation to consolidate the Reserve Component’s roughly 30 duty statuses into four. Sens. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) are expected to lead the companion effort in the Senate.

This may sound technical. It is not. The current duty status sys­tem is the reason two Reservists doing the same job, on the same orders, can come home with different pay, different TRICARE eligibility, and different GI Bill credit. It is the bureaucratic residue of half a century of patches, and it has cost the force in dignity, readiness, and trust.

ROA is a leading voice in a strong coalition behind this bill— alongside the National Guard Association of the United States (NGAUS), the Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the United States (EANGUS), the Air and Space Forces Association (AFA), and the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA). Our executive director, retired Army Maj. Gen. John B. Hashem raised the issue directly with the Secretary of War at a roundtable, and the Secretary has now gone on the record in support of it.

“Duty Status Reform replaces a burdensome maze of statu­tory authorities governing reserve service with a clear, predictable framework,” Hashem said when the bill was introduced. “It ensures uniform benefit accrual, reduces record disputes, and delivers equal DoD/W and VA benefits for identical service.”

Real obstacles remain. We have met with more than 30 congres­sional offices to date. The path from introduction to implementa­tion is not clear. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has held a longstanding non-concurrence on duty status reform across multiple administrations. Conditions have continued to improve in our favor, however, and we are currently striving to successfully influence the current OMB to take the step its predecessors have not.

In the House, the bill’s referral to multiple committees presents a procedural complication for inclusion in the base text of the FY 2027 NDAA. The Senate path may be cleaner. However, we are working both. ROA is also preparing to unveil a comprehensive cosponsorship effort to broaden and maximize support across both chambers, going into the NDAA cycle and before this Congress closes. The goal is to stand in a strong position, should we need to revisit duty status reform in the 120th Congress.

Kuleana in legislative form. Two decades of effort have brought us to this point. We owe it to our servicemembers to finish the job.

Pono—doing what is right

Susan E. Lukas 9/11 Servicemember Fairness Act advances. Few Hawaiian concepts translate as cleanly as pono. To live pono is to do what is right—to keep the world in proper alignment.

On March 26, 2026, the House Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs unanimously approved the Susan E. Lukas 9/11 Servicemember Fairness Act (H.R. 5339), spearheaded by ROA and introduced by Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.). The bill would extend the presumption of service connection under the PACT Act to servicemembers who reported for duty at the Pentagon between September 11 and November 19, 2001—the date the building was officially declared clear of toxicants.

These men and women breathed cement dust, asbestos, glass fibers, lead, and mold. They are currently excluded from the PACT Act presumption and from the World Trade Center Health Program available to other 9/11 first responders. The bill closes that gap.

It is named for retired Air Force Lt. Col. Susan E. Lukas, an ROA life member who was at the Pentagon on September 11 and returned to duty the very next day.

In February 2025, I testified before the House and Senate Committees on Veterans’ Affairs urging Congress to act and held up Lt. Col. Lukas’ story as emblematic of others. Less than a year later, the bill has been introduced and unanimously advanced through subcommittee—a pace worth noting in a town where the average bill takes eight years to reach a hearing, if it reaches one at all.

That is pono. That is what right looks like.

Major Richard Star Act. The same instinct animates ROA’s work on the Major Richard Star Act (H.R. 2102 / S. 1032), which would end the unjust offset that forces combat-injured medical retirees with fewer than 20 years of service to forfeit a portion of their earned retirement pay to receive their VA disability compensation. On April 15, I joined Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.), Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and the Veterans Justice Alliance at a House Triangle press conference urging passage.

“With American forces once again in combat, families across this country are asking a simple question: if our sons and daughters are wounded, will the nation take care of them?” I told the assembled press. “The Major Richard Star Act is a test of whether this country keeps its word.”

I used the same press conference to draw a line between the Star Act and ROA’s parallel campaign to preserve Army Reserve MEDEVAC capability, which the Army Transformation Initiative has placed at risk. “The Star Act isn’t the only place we’re sending the wrong signal,” I said. “The Army is the Joint Force lead for MEDEVAC and the only service with organic MEDEVAC capa­bility at scale—most of it in the Army Reserve. Walking away from that mission does not reassure families, and it does not reflect a nation committed to caring for its wounded.”

Two weeks later, at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on April 30, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth pledged the Department’s support for the Star Act. Roughly 54,000 com­bat-wounded veterans stand to benefit. The bill carries more than 300 House cosponsors and nearly 80 in the Senate.

Mālama—to protect

To mālama is to care for, to steward, to protect—most often used in Hawai‘i in connection with land, water, and people. Mālama ‘āina—care for the land. Mālama ‘ohana—care for the family.

The 442nd Fighter Wing preserved through 2030. The news reached me on Kaua‘i. On April 20, 2026, Secretary of the Air Force Troy E. Meink announced that the A-10 “Warthog” will remain in service through 2030—a decision that preserves the Reserve A-10 squadron at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, home of the 442nd Fighter Wing. The announcement followed a year-long ROA-led advocacy campaign launched after our Board of Directors passed a time-sensitive resolution in April 2025 calling for the Wing’s preservation.

Operation Epic Fury—the recent surge of Reserve aviation in support of national missions—made undeniable what we have long argued: the A-10 is operationally irreplaceable, and so are the expe­rienced Reserve aviators who fly it.

Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Don Stockton of ROA’s Department of Missouri, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Susan Lukas, and I worked closely with the office of Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) to shape the favorable A-10 language ultimately included in the FY 2026 NDAA—language that required the Air Force to maintain a mini­mum A-10 inventory, hold sustainment funding through September 30, 2026, and submit a recapitalization plan to Congress. That bridge made the April 2026 extension possible.

Our focus now turns to setting up a long-term future for the 442nd Fighter Wing. Whether that future is the continued opera­tion of the A-10, or the identification of a follow-on mission on a more modern-generation platform, ROA will support it—and we will collaborate closely with the Pentagon and Congress to secure it. The experienced Reserve aviators in that wing are an institutional capability we cannot regenerate once lost.

Army Reserve MEDEVAC. The same instinct to mālama runs through ROA’s campaign to preserve Army Reserve MEDEVAC capability. ROA is actively supporting the RESCUE Act, champi­oned by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and coordinating with House Readiness Subcommittee staff and Rep. Morgan Luttrell (R-Texas) on parallel House language.

FY 2026 NDAA. Beyond the A-10 language, the FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act—passed by the House 312- 112 and cleared by the Senate before the holidays—extended the Army Tactical Wheeled Vehicle modernization strategy through FY 2027, maintained the C-130 fleet, raised the tanker fleet minimum, and required corrective action on KC-46 Category 1 deficiencies before further deliveries.

The Act also added flexibility to the Transition Assistance Program (TAP) by allowing Reservists to waive TAP requirements under certain conditions—the second consecutive year of progress on ROA’s five-step TAP improvement plan, and a reform on which ROA had testified before Congress on three separate occasions. It also required the War Department to evaluate and implement a standardized Aviation Incentive Pay framework by 2027, the product of a coalition letter ROA spearheaded with more than 24 organizations.

FY 2026 Defense Appropriations: $2.2 billion secured for the Reserve Components. Congress passed the FY 2026 Defense Appropriations Act on February 3, ending the longest defense fund­ing lapse in recent memory. For ROA, the bill represented a revital­ized reengagement with the appropriations process—and produced concrete results.

The act delivered two major C-130 modernization wins: $976 million for six C-130J aircraft for the Air National Guard, and $500  million for four KC-130J aircraft for the Navy Reserve—recapital­izing aging fleets that the Services and ROA have flagged as urgent priorities for years. Combined with $800 million for the National Guard and Reserve Equipment Account (NGREA), these line items totaled approximately $2.2 billion in Reserve Component appro­priations directly advanced by ROA’s advocacy.

To get there, ROA spearheaded several coalition efforts, hosted press conferences with mission partners, and engaged relentlessly with key House and Senate leaders from both parties to end the shutdown. Among those efforts: a January 30 letter to Senate lead­ership urging the defense bill to advance as a standalone measure if broader negotiations stalled. They did. It did. More than 50 ROA members met with the office of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) during that advocacy window. They received a pri­vate tour of the Capitol—the kind of access that sustained engage­ment, not occasional outreach, makes possible.

Building toward the next shutdown—before there is one. ROA is now supporting the Shutdown Fairness Act, spearheaded by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), which would ensure servicemem­bers continue to receive pay during future funding lapses. We have also drafted and are actively seeking a sponsor for complementary legislation that ensures the continued availability of appropriations for drill weekends, mandatory training, and Professional Military Education opportunities during a shutdown. Pay continuity addresses one part of the problem. Training continuity addresses the part that determines whether a Reservist can actually do the job.

This is the beginning, not the end, of ROA’s reengagement with the appropriations process. We expect more wins to follow. These are the hard, unglamorous mechanics of mālama—protecting what matters by the appropriation, by the section, by the line.

Lōkahi—unity and harmony

Lōkahi—harmony, unity, the recognition that nothing meaningful is accomplished alone—runs through every­thing ROA has done this year.

First-ever Air Force Reserve Advocacy Day. On Sept. 25, ROA hosted the first-ever Air Force Reserve Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill, in partnership with the Air Force Reserve Advisory Council and the U.S. Air Force Reserve. Thirty advo­cates—including more than 20 Airmen—met with congressional staff from more than 20 offices. Sen. Richard Blumenthal opened the day with remarks for the group and encouraged everyone to enjoy the event. We focused on four priorities: appropriations for drill weekend reimbursements, closing the “donut hole” in the Joint Travel Regulations to reim­burse rental cars, extending TRICARE Reserve Select to dual-status technicians and federally employed Reservists, and strengthening the Transition Assistance Program.

Reserve Forces Travel Fairness Act. That last priority on rental cars—second on the list above—became the Reserve Forces Travel Fairness Act (H.R. 7593), which Rep. James Moylan (R-Guam) introduced shortly after Presidents Day. Drafted by ROA, the bill would amend the Joint Travel Regulations to allow reimbursement for rental cars for Reservists who travel more than 150 miles to mandatory training. I had first identified the issue during a visit to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base last summer. The Airmen we met during Advocacy Day surfaced it again. Now it is a bill, supported by NGAUS and EANGUS.

That is lōkahi. That is what coalition looks like when it works.

Excellence in Legislative Readiness Awards Reception. ROA opened its 2025 Annual Meeting with the first-ever Excellence in Legislative Readiness Awards Reception, celebrating leaders whose dedication, partnership, and vision have strengthened Reserve Component readiness and advanced the organization’s legislative mission.

Because of the ongoing government shutdown, no Members of Congress were able to attend in person—an irony not lost on those gathered, since a shutdown is, at its core, a failure of government to be legislatively ready. However, congressional staff attended in their place, which underscored the deep collaboration between ROA and the staff whose behind-the-scenes work shapes policy outcomes that directly impact Reservists, Guardsmen, and their families.

The award recognizes exceptional and sustained commitment to the readiness and well-being of the Reserve Component—through openness to collaboration with ROA, a record of action on ROA-spearheaded policies, and willingness to engage on the full range of Reserve Component challenges.

Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.), Chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity, was honored for his leadership in strengthening the Transition Assistance Program and championing policies that support Reservists and their families. ROA recently met with the Chairman in his congressional office and was grateful that he accepted the award in person. In just over two years of partnership, Chairman Van Orden has secured a dedicated Reserve Component counseling pathway in TAP under the FY 2025 NDAA; an increase in paid military leave for Guardsmen and Reservists from 15 to 20 days per year; House passage of the Montgomery GI Bi l l – S e l e c t e d Reserves Tuition Fairness Act on a bipartisan vote; FY 2026 NDAA language allowing Reservists to waive TAP requirements under certain circumstances; subcommittee advancement of the Guard and Reserve GI Bill Parity Act; H.R. 6873, restoring Guard and Reserve members to the VA’s annual national suicide preven­tion report; and Sections 221 and 222 of the Elizabeth Dole Act, which incorporated approximately seven ROA-spearheaded reforms to USERRA.

At the in-person presentation, Hashem reflected on the partner­ship directly to the Chairman: “Congressman Van Orden has built one of the most substantive and consequential working relation­ships with ROA of any Member of Congress in recent memory. This award reflects what can be achieved when a Member of Congress engages as a genuine partner.”

Justin Vogt, Minority Staff Director for the Subcommittee, was recognized for his pivotal role in opening doors for ROA, fostering bipartisan cooperation, and shaping nearly every major veterans’ policy priority the orga­nization has advanced.

Eric Johnson, Senior Defense Policy Advisor to Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), was honored for his instrumental work in secur­ing more than 70 cosponsors for C-130 modernization and helping deliver billions in funding and NDAA provisions to strengthen airlift capability. His most recent C-130 letter for the current defense cycle—supported by ROA— has already drawn more than 80 cosponsors and sustained and continued growth in the months since the award. Accepting on his behalf at the reception was his colleague, Kayla Davidson.

Jake Fales and Peter Donlon, former ROA Policy Fellows, were recognized for their continued contribu­tions to ROA’s mission and their commitment to devel­oping the next generation of defense policy leaders.

The reception brought together congressional staff, ROA leadership, and advocates from across the country. It served both as recognition of excellence and as a reaffirmation of ROA’s premise: that sustained relationships, informed advocacy, and legislative readiness are the foundation of meaningful policy progress for the Reserve and National Guard.

Ho‘omau—to persevere

Ho‘omau—to continue, to persevere, to carry on. In Hawaiian thought, it is the recognition that the work is never finished, and that finishing is not the point.

FY 2027 NDAA and Appropriations. ROA has formally submit­ted its FY 2027 NDAA priorities to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees and its FY 2027 Defense Appropriations priorities to the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Defense. We have already met with nearly 20 offices on the authorization side, with more meetings on the appropriations side scheduled in the weeks ahead.

Our top three FY 2027 NDAA priorities are duty status reform; a clear and enforceable prohibition on any divestiture, transfer, or inactivation of dedicated Army Reserve MEDEVAC capability; and the Reserve Forces Travel Fairness Act.

Our top appropriations priorities include concurrent and pro­portional fielding of Reserve Component equipment; funding the National Guard and Reserve Equipment Appropriation at no less than $1.3 billion; full C-130J recapitalization for the Navy Reserve, Air Force Reserve, and Air National Guard; $200 million for Army National Guard and $100 million for Army Reserve HMMWV modernization; a prohibition on funds for any divestiture of dedicated Army Reserve MEDEVAC capability; funding for a recurring, Joint-level mobilization exercise modeled on the 1978 Nifty Nugget series; continued funding for the TriService Nursing Research Program (TSNRP); and travel reimbursement for drilling Reservists.

Coast Guard and DHS. We submitted a Coast Guard and DHS budget statement to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, urging an end to the DHS funding lapse, full funding of the Coast Guard’s $15.6 billion FY 2027 budget request to enable Force Design 2028, and resourcing of the Coast Guard Reserve to grow responsibly to 8,500 Selected Reserve billets. Shortly after our statement was submitted, the House passed the FY 2026 DHS appropriations bill on April 30, 2026, ending the 76-day partial DHS shutdown for the Coast Guard and the agen­cies funded by the bill. The lapse is over; the work of securing the Coast Guard Reserve’s longer-term resourcing continues.

ROA’s congressional charter. We are also advancing changes to ROA’s congressional charter, introduced by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), with a House companion sought.

This is what ho‘omau requires.

Mahalo—with gratitude

On my last evening in Kaua‘i, I watched the sun fall into the Pacific from a quiet stretch of beach at Poipu. The light changed three or four times in the span of an hour—gold to pink to a strange, soft violet I cannot describe and have not seen since.

I thought about the men and women I have spent the year work­ing for: the Reservists wading through a duty status system seem­ingly designed to thwart them; the families of the combat-injured waiting on a bill named for a man who didn’t live to see it pass; the Pentagon survivors who returned to work the next morning and breathed in the dust; the aviators of the 442nd, whose flying mission has been saved through 2030 but whose long-term future is still unwritten; and the military nurses whose research program a Hawaiian senator built and whose funding we are still fighting to maintain.

The work is not finished. Ho‘omau.

But the work has moved. Bills introduced. Bills marked up. Aircraft preserved. Awards presented. Coalitions built—statements filed. Champions identified. $2.2 billion secured.

That is kuleana. That is pono. That is mālama. That is lōkahi.

To the Members of Congress, the staff, the partner organizations, and most of all the ROA membership who made this year possible:

Mahalo nui loa.

Thank you very much. The work continues.