Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2025

Floor Speech

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Mr. DeSAULNIER. Madam Speaker, I thank the ranking member for yielding me the time. I acknowledge the leadership of the chair and the ranking member of the full committee and the subcommittee for their great, bipartisan work on this initiative.

One of the Coast Guard's primary missions is search and rescue. In fiscal year 2025 alone, their efforts saved more than 2,200 people and $40 million in property. To keep up this important work, they need robust funding and support, which is just what this bill delivers.

With the administration's aggressive funding and staffing cuts, however, at the National Weather Service and FEMA and the increasing severity and frequency of natural disasters due in my opinion to climate change, the risks associated with those disasters continue to rise.

Unfortunately, we don't have to look any further than recent floods and devastating storms to know how important the Coast Guard can be in responding to these emergencies and disasters, but they need their partners at FEMA and NOAA.

I strongly support this bill and the great work the Coast Guard does to protect our citizens and waters, including in and around the district I represent in the San Francisco Bay Area. I also ask my colleagues to continue to endeavor to invest not just in the Coast Guard but in their partner agencies like FEMA and the National Weather Service to ensure safety and mission readiness.

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