U.S. Coast Guard Forum - Sailing into Dangerous Waters

Op-Ed

The Coast Guard is our Nation's premier response agency, most recently distinguishing itself as one of the first agencies to respond to the disastrous earthquake in Haiti, and well regarded for its work evacuating New Yorkers from Manhattan following the 9/11 attacks and saving tens of thousands of lives following Hurricane Katrina. In spite of these facts and laudable performance, President Obama's FY11 budget is being directed to cut a significantly larger share of its operational capability than any other armed service or federal law enforcement agency. The Coast Guard is being directed to undertake massive and dangerous reductions under this budget, while simultaneously fighting the war on terror, combating the drug cartels and protecting our coastline, ports and critical infrastructure.

The Administration claims the substantial cuts to Coast Guard operations are necessary to "make room" for investments in new acquisitions. However, the budget is proposing a sizable decrease of $155 million, or more than ten percent, in Coast Guard acquisitions, while also pushing the funding and delivery of many critical investments to future years.

What this means is that fewer drugs will be seized, fewer drug smugglers will be interdicted, fewer migrants will be saved, and fewer ports and miles of coastline will be protected.

In the wake of another terrorist attack, in the midst of a murderous drug war, and after our country once again called upon the Coast Guard to respond to an urgent humanitarian crisis in Haiti, the Administration's FY11 budget proposal for the Coast Guard is simply indefensible.

While I wholeheartedly support the need for increased fiscal discipline and believe the Coast Guard, like every Federal agency, must do to its part in exercising prudent spending restraint, I do not believe severely cutting operational capabilities at the expense of increases for DHS's headquarters functions and wasteful funds for terror trials makes any real sense.

Under President Obama's budget, DHS's headquarters functions are receiving double digit increases, hiring thousands of new federal workers, and designating $200 million for security costs associated with civilian trials of terrorist suspects.

Look deeper at the Administration's proposed spending cuts to the Coast Guard and you will see proposals that are devoid of strategic planning and that fail to take into account the current threat environment.

First, the budget proposes an unplanned deactivation of five, HH-65C Dolphin helicopters. Not only are these assets essential to both search and rescue and drug interdiction deployments, but Congress recently invested $3.5 million per helicopter to modernize their engines and avionics as part of the Coast Guard's recapitalization efforts. Therefore, the budget is proposing to waste a total of $17.5 million invested in these five key operational assets and force the removal of other helicopters from patrolling some of the Nation's busiest smuggling routes off of Florida to backfill these proposed deactivations.

Secondly, the budget is proposing the deactivation of five Maritime Safety and Security Teams (MSSTs). Sadly, the budget was not accompanied by a strategic plan that clearly explained how the Coast Guard will cover the critical role these MSSTs play in protecting some of the most likely terrorist targets -- including New York City and oil infrastructure in Louisiana and Alaska. The budget is proposing to shut down specialized counterterrorism and response assets in the locations of two of our Nation's worst disasters: 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina.

Third, the budget drastically cuts active duty military billets. More than any other asset, people are of the greatest value to the Coast Guard. No other armed service is operating so far below its authorized billet structure and is being asked to absorb such a large reduction of force. While a recapitalized Coast Guard may require fewer people to operate modern cutters and aircraft, the budget is not proposing a rational downsizing that corresponds to the activation of new assets. Rather, the budget is proposing to bluntly cut 1,112 active duty billets at a time of record retention. This proposal is necessitating drastic personal actions today that will cut accessions into the Coast Guard and opportunities for promotion to some of the lowest levels in the service's history. How is that preserving jobs or ensuring for our Nation's security?

Fourth, the budget claims the cuts to operations are necessary to support recapitalization. This is simply false. Look no further than the budget for the National Security Cutter -- a request that simply completes the funding for the 5th NSC, but, unlike previous years, neglects funding for the long-lead materials for NSC #6. This means the planned delivery schedule of one NSC per year is unlikely to stay on track. You can't stay on track to deliver one cutter per year when the funding for materials is omitted from the budget.

Finally, Congress has yet to receive the revised Deepwater investment plan as required by law. The Administration surely must have noted this legislative mandate, since it has been carried in every annual appropriations Act since FY06, and simply decided to ignore it. How else can the inexcusable failure to submit this vital plan be explained? How can Congress even contemplate the drastic cuts proposed for FY11 or the Administration's far-fletched claims without a complete, updated plan for the recapitalization of the Coast Guard's fleet?

Fiscal discipline is about getting our spending priorities right. The FY11 budget proposal for the Coast Guard not only undermines our security efforts in the short term, its lack of planning and cuts to experienced military personnel places the future of this vital agency in some very dangerous waters.

While there is a long way to go before this budget becomes law, I believe the Coast Guard's need for perseverance in the face of mounting challenges is perhaps best summed up in the Breton's Fisherman Prayer which President Kennedy prominently displayed on his desk. It reminds us, "O Lord, thy sea is so big, but my ship is so small."

I'd hope this Administration would heed this perspective of Kennedy and really think hard about the ramifications of trading operations for bureaucracy and political righteousness.

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