Authority To Order the Ready Reserve of the Armed Forces to Active Duty To Address International Drug Trafficking
The order invokes the federal emergency Ready Reserve call-up statute and makes that authority available to the Secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security to respond to the existing national emergency on international drug trafficking. It enables those Secretaries to order Ready Reserve units and individual members to active duty as they consider necessary, without itself deploying any personnel.
What this order does
What it orders
The order invokes the emergency Ready Reserve call-up authority under 10 U.S.C. § 12302 — a federal statute that allows Reserve forces to be ordered to active duty during a declared national emergency — and makes that authority available to the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security. Acting under the Defense Secretary's direction, the Secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force may order Ready Reserve units and individual members to active duty. The Homeland Security Secretary has the same authority over the Coast Guard when it is not operating as a branch of the Navy.
The order does not itself activate or deploy any Reserve personnel, set troop ceilings, or establish reporting requirements. It acts in furtherance of EO 14059, which declared the national emergency over international drug trafficking in December 2021; all call-up decisions remain discretionary choices for the relevant Secretaries, subject to applicable law and available appropriations.
Who it affects
Members of the Ready Reserve — Army, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard Reserve components — who could be called to active duty under this authority. The Secretaries of Defense, Homeland Security, Army, Navy, and Air Force are directly empowered by the order.
Why it matters
Reserve service members could be ordered to active duty for drug-trafficking-related missions without a new congressional authorization, as the legal trigger is an already-declared national emergency. The scope and pace of any call-up depends entirely on how the relevant service secretaries choose to use the newly available authority.
What must happen and when
How the order is supposed to work
Authority flows directly from the President's invocation to the service secretaries. The Defense Secretary oversees Army, Navy, and Air Force Ready Reserve activations; the Homeland Security Secretary controls Coast Guard activations when the Coast Guard is not serving as a Navy component. No reporting requirements, troop ceilings, timelines, or sunset dates are specified. Each Secretary determines necessity independently, constrained only by the terms of 10 U.S.C. § 12302 and available appropriations.