“We all marveled at the rooftop rescues in the aftermath of last year’s hurricanes,” Delahunt said. “By all accounts, the Coast Guard was the only federal agency that got it right. But they simply don’t have enough helicopters and ships to go around and do all the things we in Congress want them to do.”
In a letter to House and Senate Appropriations Chairman and Ranking Members working on a compromise fiscal year 2007 Coast Guard budget, Delahunt and his colleagues urged them to honor the Coast Guard’s request for $993.6 million for the Deepwater vessel replacement project. Earlier this year, the House-passed version of the fiscal year 2007 Homeland Security Appropriations bill, legislation containing the service’s budget, trimmed the request by $7 million. The Senate version of the bill agreed to the Coast Guard’s request.
The Deepwater program is a multibillion dollar, 25-year acquisition plan to modernize the Coast Guard’s aging fleet of cutters, patrol boats and aircraft. Currently, the Coast Guard operates the second oldest naval fleet in the world – behind the North Korean and Iranian navies. Many ships and planes are riddled with structural defects, putting Coast Guard personnel, and the people they rescue, at risk. Even when a new asset joins the fleet, the demands on the service – from homeland security, search-and-rescue, and maritime law enforcement – speed up obsolescence.
While there is no direct relation between Deepwater funding and small boat stations, Delahunt stressed the urgency of healthier funding for all Coast Guard missions, including search-and-rescue. “No one responds quicker in an emergency than the US Coast Guard,” Delahunt said. “But you can only move as fast as your boat and plane permit.”
The Congressman, a former member of the Coast Guard, is co-chair of the Congressional Coast Guard Caucus.
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Note: The full text of the letter is available from his office.