Role and responsibilities

After the 1986 reorganization of the Armed Forces undertaken by the Goldwater–Nichols Act, the Joint Chiefs of Staff does not possess operational authority over troops or other units. Responsibility for conducting military operations goes from the president to the secretary of defense directly to the commanders of the unified combatant commands and thus bypasses the Joint Chiefs of Staff completely.

Today, their primary responsibility is to ensure personnel readiness, policy, planning and training of their respective services for the combatant commanders to utilize. The Joint Chiefs of Staff also act in an advisory capacity for the president of the United States and the secretary of defense. In addition, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff acts as the chief military advisor to the president and the secretary of defense. In this strictly advisory role, the Joint Chiefs constitute the third-highest deliberatory body for military policy, after the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council, which includes the president and other officials besides the chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

While serving as the chairman or vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, chief of staff of the Army, commandant of the Marine Corps, Chief of Naval Operations, chief of staff of the Air Force, or commandant of the Coast Guard, the salary is $15,583.20 a month, regardless of cumulative years of service completed under section 205 of title 37, United States Code.

Current members of the Joint Chiefs of Staffedit

Position	Photograph	Name	Service	Flag
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff		General Mark A. Milley	United States Army
Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff		General John E. Hyten	United States Air Force
Chief of Staff of the Army		General James C. McConville	United States Army
Commandant of the Marine Corps		General David H. Berger	United States Marine Corps
Chief of Naval Operations		Admiral Michael M. Gilday	United States Navy
Chief of Staff of the Air Force		General Charles Q. Brown Jr.	United States Air Force
Chief of Space Operations		General John W. Raymond	United States Space Force
Chief of the National Guard Bureau		General Daniel R. Hokanson	United States Army

Commandant of the Coast Guardedit

Although it is a branch of the Armed Forces pursuant to 14 U.S.C. § 101, the Coast Guard operates under the Department of Homeland Security rather than the Department of Defense, except when the president (e.g., in times of war or national emergency) transfers it to the Department of the Navy. The commandant of the Coast Guard is not a de jure member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff but is sometimes regarded as a de facto member, being entitled to the same supplemental pay as the Joint Chiefs, and occasionally attending meetings of the JCS by invitation. Unlike the Joint Chiefs, who are not actually in the military's operational chain of command, the commandant is both the administrative and the operational commander of the service.

Position	Photograph	Name	Service	Flag
Commandant of the Coast Guard		Admiral Karl L. Schultz	United States Coast Guard