 The President was also given expanded authority to federalize the National Guard, with changes to the duration and the circumstances under which he could call it up.The Army began the creation of an Aviation arm, and the federal government took steps to ensure the immediate availability of wartime weapons and equipment by contracting in advance for production of gunpowder and other material.The act was passed amidst the "preparedness controversy", after Pancho Villa's cross-border raid on Columbus, New Mexico and prior to U.S. entry into World War I.