	1. What Is the Reserve Component? The term "Reserve Component" (RC) refers collectively to the seven individual reserve components of the Armed Forces: the Army National Guard of the United States, the Army Reserve, the Navy Reserve, the Marine Corps Reserve, the Air National Guard of the United States, the Air Force Reserve, and the Coast Guard Reserve. The purpose of these seven reserve components, as codified in law, is to "provide trained units and qualified persons available for active duty in the armed forces, in time of war or national emergency, and at such other times as the national security may require, to fill the needs of the armed forces whenever more units and persons are needed than are in the regular components." How Many People Are in the Reserve Component? 4. What Are the Different Categories of Full-time Support for the Reserve Components? They were organized under Congress's constitutional authority "to raise and support Armies" and "to provide and maintain a Navy." How Has the Role of the Reserve Components Changed in Recent Years? During the Cold War era, the reserve components were a manpower pool that was rarely tapped. From 1945 to 1989, reservists were involuntarily activated for federal service four times, an average of less than once per decade. The nation has relied more heavily on the reserve components since the end of the Cold War. 7. 8. 9. The authority to activate reservists under this provision rests with the Service Secretary, but it may only be invoked for a "preplanned mission in support of a combatant command" where the costs of the activations and a description of the mission are included in the service's budget materials. This provision is codified at 10 U.S.C. and " 12. What Type of Legal Protections Do Reservists Have When They Are Serving on Active Duty? This is the provision of law used to provide federal pay and benefits to the Guardsmen called up to provide security at many of the nation's airports in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, to assist with the response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, and to support the southwest border security mission in 2006-2008, 2010-2016, and 2018-present. 13. Congress has made many changes in Reserve Component pay and benefits since the September 11 th attacks.
The Constitution provides Congress with broad powers over the Armed Forces, including the power to "to raise and support Armies," "to provide and maintain a Navy," "to make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces" and "to provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States.... " In the exercise of this constitutional authority, Congress has historically shown great interest in various issues that bear on the vitality of the reserve components, such as funding, equipment, and personnel policy. This report is designed to provide an overview of key reserve component personnel issues.
The term "Reserve Component" refers collectively to the seven individual reserve components of the Armed Forces: the Army National Guard of the United States, the Army Reserve, the Navy Reserve, the Marine Corps Reserve, the Air National Guard of the United States, the Air Force Reserve, and the Coast Guard Reserve. The purpose of these seven reserve components, as codified in law at 10 U.S.C. §10102, is to "provide trained units and qualified persons available for active duty in the armed forces, in time of war or national emergency, and at such other times as the national security may require, to fill the needs of the armed forces whenever more units and persons are needed than are in the regular components."
During the Cold War era, the reserve components were a manpower pool that was rarely tapped. From 1945 to 1989, reservists were involuntarily activated by the federal government four times, an average of less than once per decade. Since the end of the Cold War, the nation has relied more heavily on the reserve components. Reservists have been involuntarily activated for contingency operations by the federal government six times since 1990, an average of about once every five years, including large-scale mobilizations for the Persian Gulf War (1990-1991) and in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks (2001-present). Additionally, starting in FY2014, the Services began involuntarily activating reservists under a new authority for pre-planned missions in support of Combatant Commanders.
This report provides insight to reserve component personnel issues through a series of questions and answers that address
How reserve component personnel are organized (questions 2 and 4); How many people are in each of the different categories of the reserve component (question 3); How reserve component personnel have been and may be used (questions 1, 5, 6, 7, 9, and 11); How reserve component personnel are compensated (questions 8 and 10); The types of legal protections that exist for reserve component personnel (question 12); and Recent changes in reserve component pay and benefits made by Congress (question 13).