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At CG budget hearing, DHS planning faulted

An appropriations subcommittee criticized the Department of Homeland Security for proposed cuts in Coast Guard manpower and reductions in acquisitions for fiscal 2011, and its failure to deliver future budget planning tools to Congress.

Members of the appropriations subcommittee on homeland security questioned Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen about the lack of a five-year capital investment plan and a comprehensive review of Deepwater acquisitions despite the fact that both are required to be submitted to Congress. Rep. David Price, D-N.C., chairman of the subcommittee on homeland security, said he did not want to assign blame to the Coast Guard, but he questioned why DHS and the Office of Management and Budget had not worked with the service in getting the reports finished.

“In the absence of these documents, how can we move forward?” Price said. “It does raise questions of attentiveness of Coast Guard needs at DHS and OMB.”

So far, the committee has gotten a one-page memo on capital investments, but that is nowhere near the level of detail that the committee requires, Price said.

Allen said he understood the committee’s frustration on delayed reports, but he said the documents would be coming soon.

“We are moving at best speed on that,” Allen said.

Allen took responsibility for the proposed 2.6 percent cut in active-duty end strength that was made in the $10.08 billion fiscal 2011 Coast Guard budget. He said he had to make the service’s $1.4 billion acquisition budget a priority in tough financial times, so he had to eliminate 1,112 active-duty billets. Because the Coast Guard plans to hire some civilians, the net loss to the Coast Guard will be 773 positions.

But Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., the ranking minority member of the subcommittee, said that overall budget cuts were imposed by the Obama administration through the Department of Homeland Security, which is still hiring despite the Coast Guard reductions. In addition, acquisitions actually are being slowed by a reduction of more than $155 million, Rogers said. He said long-lead materials for the sixth national security cutter had been pushed to fiscal 2012; no provision had been made for buying unmanned aerial vehicles which would help in drug interdiction; and no mention was made of replacing the C-130 Hercules transport plane that was destroyed in a mid-air collision Oct. 29 with a Marine Corps helicopter off the coast of California.

Because it was submitted before the incident, the budget also does not take into account the MH-60T Jayhawk helicopter that crashed March 3 in the Utah mountains.

“So I am mad, frustrated, disappointed — not at the admiral, not at the Coast Guard — but at DHS, which is dictating the emasculation of the Coast Guard,” Rogers said.

Bobby Whithorne, a DHS spokesman, said that OMB and DHS are not just loading up on bureaucrats to the detriment of the Coast Guard.

“That is simply not true,” he said. “A significant portion of our management budget serves operational purposes to increase efficiency and effectiveness across the department. To bolster security and make the most of current operating capabilities, this budget maximizes Coast Guard resources, recapitalizing aging assets while deploying personnel to ports and operating areas across the country based on risk and threats as needed.”

Whithorne said the majority of positions being eliminated are related to five aging ships that are being decommissioned, a point echoed by Allen.

Rep. C.A. “Dutch” Ruppersberger, D-Md., asked Allen whether the Coast Guard would be able to meet its goal of reducing drug trafficking by 40 percent by 2014 if the proposed cuts to manpower and the decommissioning of the five cutters are put in place. Allen said it would be difficult to do with reduced assets. There will be a loss of 5,000 ship hours in 2011 compared to 2010.

“It will be a challenge,” Allen said. “It will force us to make trade-offs.”

Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, criticized the reduction in drug patrols that would be necessary especially as the drug war heats up in Mexico. The Coast Guard was able to interdict 175 tons of cocaine and 35 tons of marijuana in 2009, worth more than $5 billion.

“This is crazy,” Carter said. “This is insane.”

Carter also brought up the lack of planning for new polar icebreakers to patrol the Arctic. The Coast Guard has three — one of which won’t be back in service until 2013. He said with other countries trying to claim resources in the area, the U.S. could be left behind without an adequate presence in Arctic waters.

Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., said the decommissioning of air facilities in Muskegon, Mich., and Waukegan, Ill., would mean an additional hour of flight time for aircraft to patrol certain areas of Lake Michigan from the remaining air station at Traverse City, Mich. The two air stations that are closing saved a total of 50 people last year, Kirk said. He noted that the average temperature in the Great Lakes is 50 degrees, and some people could die waiting for the Coast Guard to rescue them.

“Having a helicopter show up a half hour late to pick up a body doesn’t make sense,” Kirk said.

At the end of the hearing, Price said that the committee needs to know how the Coast Guard missions will be affected by all of the cuts.

“We clearly need to sort this out,” he said.