Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) recently introduced legislation (S 2623) to allow the Secretary of Defense to use Department of Defense (DoD) funds to pay for travel if a Reserve member is placed on leave because of training suspensions or staffing issues. The language would apply to situations where a Reserve member is more than 300 miles from home and has been placed on leave for more than 96 hours. The bill is in response to an incident which took place last Christmas when a group of Nebraska National Guard Soldiers were almost stranded in Washington State after training exercises were suspended. The Soldiers eventually made it home thanks to donations from members of the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce.
[Source: http://bennelson.senate.gov/news/details.cfm?id=292854&&]