Coast Guard Authorization Bill

Floor Speech

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Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I want to speak today to the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2017, of which I am a cosponsor. As chairman of the Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Coast Guard, I am proud that we were able to bring this important bipartisan legislation, which was originally introduced by Senator Sullivan, to the floor today for consideration. The bill that we are debating will increase our national security, protect our maritime industry, increase safety for the boating public, and provide consistency for those who depend on the water for their daily work.

As anyone impacted by the 2017 hurricane season will tell you, the Coast Guard plays a vitally important role in our Nation's first response efforts. Equally critical is the Coast Guard's role as a member of our U.S. military. Coast Guard women and men protect our waterways, defend our shores, interdict contraband, arrest human traffickers, guarantee the free movement of commerce, and ensure the stewardship of our national resources.

On any given day, the Coast Guard responds to an average of 45 search and rescue missions, seizes 1,500 pounds of drugs, interdicts 17 illegal migrants, conducts 16 security boardings, and facilitates the movement of $12.6 billion worth of goods. These professionals do their job without seeking recognition or acknowledgement. It often goes overlooked that our coastguardsmen are serving across every ocean and on every continent, including Antarctica. They serve across the Middle East, including in both Iraq and Afghanistan. They help protect our Navy's ships, defend against pirates, and ensure our strategic ports remain open.

This legislation provides the Coast Guard the authority to better carry out those missions, including defending our critical ballistic submarines when they are surfaced and at their most vulnerable. In one way or another, the Coast Guard affects every American, even in my home State of South Dakota. We may not have a coastline, but the work of the Coast Guard helps facilitate the export of agricultural products that drive our State's economy. The Coast Guard also provides boating safety classes and outreach to tens of thousands of my fellow South Dakotans. This outreach saves lives every single day.

This past year was the deadliest for boaters in the past 5 years, with a 12-percent increase in deaths. Many of those deaths could have been prevented, and this legislation seeks to make improvements to boater safety, such as requiring the use of an engine cutoff switch for certain recreational boats. Maybe you have seen the videos of boaters falling overboard and their boat continuing in circles and hitting them, often seriously injuring or even killing them. This change, supported by the recreational boating community, will prevent these types of incidents in the future.

This legislation also provides certainty to our mariners. It streamlines regulations, reduces burdens, and clarifies ambiguous rules that harm our commerce and our environment. We also reauthorize the hydrographic services at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which are necessary for shoreline mapping and accurate nautical charts, and we reauthorize the Federal Maritime Commission.

Finally, this bill fixes a broken patchwork of regulations that prevents efficiency in moving goods along our waterways. The Vessel Incidental Discharge Act, or VIDA, is important bipartisan legislation--sponsored by Senators Wicker, Casey, and more than 20 cosponsors from both sides of the aisle--that creates a uniform set of rules to protect the environment while providing consistent regulations for all ports and waterways.

You will hear from some of my colleagues that this act reduces environmental controls and is being jammed down their throats. This is simply not true. We have negotiated in good faith for hundreds of hours, over the past few Congresses, to make this a strong piece of bipartisan legislation. We need strict, science-based, and achievable environmental standards, and that is what this VIDA title will yield.

The new standards must be based on the best available technology that is economically achievable and are designed to become more stringent over time as technology improves. Setting limits beyond what is achievable may make for a good sound bite, but it doesn't actually improve the environment. This bill will.

Like so much of the work we do at the Commerce Committee, Senator Nelson and I have worked hard to ensure the bipartisan Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2017 can garner strong support on both sides of the aisle. The measure meets the operational needs of the Coast Guard, allowing the service to continue to do the job that so many of our constituents rely on. It reauthorizes the FMC and NOAA's hydrographic services. Finally, it provides needed regulatory certainty for recreational and commercial vessel operators, while ensuring strong environmental protections for our Nation's waterways.

We are going to have an opportunity to vote on this tomorrow. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support the men and women of the Coast Guard and to support this bipartisan legislation that has been negotiated for weeks, months, and years to bring us to where we are today--working to accommodate the concerns of individual Senators on both sides of the aisle but finding a balanced bill that should attract broad bipartisan support. I hope when that vote comes tomorrow, we will be able to see Members on both sides support this legislation and the men and women of the Coast Guard, who do so much important work for our country.

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