§341 — Title 10 Armed Forces | U.S. Code

Summary

Allows the Secretary of Defense, with the Secretary of State’s agreement, to create "State Partnership" programs that pair a State or territory’s National Guard with a foreign country’s military, security forces, or government agencies whose main jobs include disaster or emergency response. Any activity with foreign security forces or those disaster-response groups must be approved by the Secretary of Defense with the Secretary of State’s agreement and the appropriate congressional committees must be told at least 15 days before the activity starts. Such assistance must follow the rules in section 362. The Chief of the National Guard Bureau must name a director in each State and territory to coordinate and report on these partnerships. The Secretary of Defense must write regulations, including accounting rules, to track spending. Department of Defense funds (including Army and Air National Guard funds) may pay costs for the National Guard to take part and may pay incremental expenses of foreign countries, but a Guard member may only go to a foreign country if on active duty. Payments to foreign countries for these expenses may not exceed $10,000,000 in any fiscal year. Nothing here overrides Title 10 authority as of December 26, 2013.

Title 10, §341

Armed Forces — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)(1)The Secretary of Defense, with the concurrence of the Secretary of State, is authorized to establish a program of activities described in paragraph (2), to support the security cooperation objectives of the United States, between members of the National Guard of a State or territory and any of the following:

(A)The military forces of a foreign country.

(B)The security forces of a foreign country.

(C)Governmental organizations of a foreign country whose primary functions include disaster response or emergency response.

(2)Each program established under this subsection shall be known as a “State Partnership”.

(b)(1)An activity with forces referred to in subsection (a)(1)(B) or organizations described in subsection (a)(1)(C) under a program established under subsection (a) may be carried out only if the Secretary of Defense, with the concurrence of the Secretary of State, determines and notifies the appropriate congressional committees not less than 15 days before initiating such activity that the activity is in the national security interests of the United States.

(2)The conduct of any assistance activities under a program established under subsection (a) shall be subject to the provisions of section 362 of this title.

(c)The Chief of the National Guard Bureau shall designate a director for each State and territory to be responsible for the coordination of activities under a program established under subsection (a) for such State or territory and reporting on activities under the program.

(d)This section shall be carried out in accordance with such regulations as the Secretary of Defense shall prescribe for purposes of this section. Such regulations shall include accounting procedures to ensure that expenditures of funds to carry out this section are accounted for and appropriate.

(e)(1)Funds authorized to be appropriated to the Department of Defense, including funds authorized to be appropriated for the Army National Guard and Air National Guard, are authorized to be available—

(A)for payment of costs incurred by the National Guard of a State or territory to conduct activities under a program established under subsection (a); and

(B)for payment of incremental expenses of a foreign country to conduct activities under a program established under subsection (a).

(2)(A)Funds shall not be available under paragraph (1) for the participation of a member of the National Guard of a State or territory in activities in a foreign country unless the member is on active duty in the Armed Forces at the time of such participation.

(B)The total amount of payments for incremental expenses of foreign countries as authorized under paragraph (1)(B) for activities under programs established under subsection (a) in any fiscal year may not exceed $10,000,000.

(f)Nothing in this section shall be construed to supersede any authority under title 10 as in effect on December 26, 2013.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Codification Text of section, as added by Pub. L. 114–328, is based on text of subsecs. (a) to (g) of section 1205 of Pub. L. 113–66, div. A, title XII, Dec. 26, 2013, 127 Stat. 897, as amended, which was formerly set out as a note under section 107 of Title 32, National Guard, prior to repeal by Pub. L. 114–328, div. A, title XII, § 1246(e), Dec. 23, 2016, 130 Stat. 2521.

Amendments

2019—Subsec. (e)(2)(A). Pub. L. 116–92 inserted period at end. 2018—Subsec. (b)(2). Pub. L. 115–232 inserted “assistance” after “any”. 2016—Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 114–328, § 1246(b), substituted “Limitations” for “Limitation” in subsec. heading, designated existing provisions as par. (1) and inserted par. heading, and added par. (2). Subsec. (d). Pub. L. 114–328, § 1246(c)(1), added subsec. (d) and struck out former subsec. (d) which required the Secretary of Defense to prescribe

Regulations

to carry out this section and to notify Congress. Subsec. (f). Pub. L. 114–328, § 1246(d)(2)(B), redesignated subsec. (g) as (f) and struck out former subsec. (f) which required annual reports for fiscal years 2016, 2017, and 2018. Pub. L. 114–328, § 1246(d)(1)(A), substituted “Annual Reports” for “Reports and Notifications” in subsec. heading, added par. (1) and struck out former par. (1) which related to a review and report of programs under the State Partnership Program as in effect on Dec. 26, 2013, redesignated par. (2)(B) as par. (2), substituted “Matters to be included” for “Annual report” in par. (2) heading, and struck out former par. (2)(A) which required reports on activities under programs established under subsec. (a). Subsec. (f)(2). Pub. L. 114–328, § 1246(d)(1)(B)(i), redesignated cls. (i) to (vi) of former par. (2)(B) as subpars. (A) to (F), respectively, of par. (2) and realigned margins. Subsec. (f)(2)(F). Pub. L. 114–328, § 1246(d)(1)(B)(ii), substituted “subparagraph (E)” for “clause (v)”. Subsec. (g). Pub. L. 114–328, § 1246(d)(2)(B)(ii), redesignated subsec. (g) as (f). Pub. L. 114–328, § 1246(c)(2), substituted “under title 10 as in effect on December 26, 2013.” for “under title 10, United States Code, as in effect on the date of the enactment of this Act.”

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

of 2016 Amendment Pub. L. 114–328, div. A, title XII, § 1246(d)(2), Dec. 23, 2016, 130 Stat. 2521, provided that the amendment made by section 1246(d)(2)(B) is effective as of Jan. 1, 2020. State Partnership Program Selection Analysis Pub. L. 119–60, div. A, title XII, § 1206, Dec. 18, 2025, 139 Stat. 1082, provided that: “The Secretary of Defense shall make such changes to Department of Defense Instruction 5111.20 (relating to the State Partnership Program), or a successor instruction, as may be necessary to ensure that, in performing selection analysis for the State Partnership Program under section 341 of title 10, United States Code, the Chief of the National Guard Bureau considers— “(1) the number of current partnerships assigned to the National Guard of a State; and “(2) the capacity of the National Guard of a State in relation to the number of assigned countries.”

§341 Department of Defense State Partnership Program