This morning the Virginia House of Delegates unanimously passed the Defend the Guard Act in a 99-0 vote. This legislation would prohibit the deployment of the Virginia National Guard into active combat unless Congress has first voted to declare war.
H.B. 2193 was sponsored by Del. Nick Freitas (R-62nd District), a ret. Green Beret who served two tours in Iraq.
Virginia is the first state of the 2025 legislative session to pass a Defend the Guard bill through a full chamber. In previous years, identical bills have passed the New Hampshire House of Representatives, the Idaho Senate, and twice through the Arizona Senate. More than half the country’s state legislatures will have a Defend the Guard bill introduced in 2025.
“Virginia was the home of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison, all of whom agreed that this country can only go to war when there’s been a vote cast by the people’s elected representatives,” explained Dan McKnight, chairman of Bring Our Troops Home. “Today the Virginia House of Delegates made their forefathers incredibly proud by unanimously taking a stand and telling the federal government that it needs to obey Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution; before Virginia’s National Guard put their boots on the ground, members of Congress need to put their names on the dotted line.”
Sgt. Dan McKnight is a thirteen-year veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces, with service in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves, U.S. Army, and Idaho Army National Guard, including an eighteen-month combat deployment to Afghanistan (2005-2007). In 2019 he founded the veterans advocacy organization Bring Our Troops Home, which has become the national leader of the Defend the Guard movement.
“Today is an incredible victory for both National Guardsmen and our Constitution. H.B. 2193 does not interfere with Title 32 deployments, or overseas training missions. Its only requirement is that before the Virginia National Guard goes into combat, Congress has to do its job and vote. I’m incredibly proud to see my organization’s bill receive such overwhelming support in the Old Dominion,” concluded McKnight.
Defend the Guard legislation has been endorsed by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, incoming Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and incoming Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Joe Kent, along with prominent members of Congress such as Senator Rand Paul (R-KY). Seven state Republican Parties have formally adopted Defend the Guard as a formal plank in their platform.
When H.B. 2193 passed its subcommittee hearing on January 30, Chairman Sam Rasoul (D-38th District) approvingly said, “The libertarians and the liberals coming together.”
