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The National Guard has served America as both a wartime force and the first military responders in times of domestic crisis. Hundreds of times each year, the nation's governors call upon their Guard troops to respond to fires, floods, hurricanes and other natural disasters.

Guard units in the U.S. are suffering severe equipment shortages which will affect their ability to respond to emergencies in their home States, such as Katrina.

With Guard and Reserve units, you can end up with a lot of people from one part of the country dying in one day, and that gets people's attention.

I think in the wake of Katrina, the Coast Guard may well have been the only entity or agency that came out of that exercise free of fault and free of blame.

I pointed out on the floor last year, after Hurricane Katrina, we were very proud that one of our National Guard engineering battalions was called to Louisiana. And they did a magnificent job.

Without the Guard and Reserve, our active duty troops could hardly deploy.

I don't know how many people have ever seen the National Guard break in somewhere, but they mean business.

The whole purpose of those attacks was to drive those contractors out. Lots of them had to leave. They were terrified.

The Minnesota spirit of compassion and help for people in need has moved countless Minnesotans to step forward to provide relief for the survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

Our nation's military and law enforcement personal work hard to protect us. We must thank them for their continued vigilance. Without their sacrifice we would less capable of protecting our nation.