USCG Budget Cuts

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This doesn't look good considering what their worldwide responsibilities are.










Coast Guard Warns Against Cuts
Associated Press
June 22, 2005

WASHINGTON - Struggling to fend off budget cuts, the Coast Guard laid out plans Tuesday to spend up to $24 billion to modernize its vessels and aircraft over the next 20 to 25 years.

Members of a Senate subcommittee said they were concerned that even President Bush's proposed funding level of $966 million for 2006 wouldn't meet the Coast Guard's needs to replace and repair its deteriorating fleet and meet the security requirements of the post-Sept. 11 world.

Coast Guard officials gave presentations to three congressional subcommittees, including House appropriators who voted last month to slash the 2006 funding nearly in half - to $500 million. Members of the House Homeland Security subcommittee complained that they had not received adequate information from the Coast Guard about its modernization plan, commonly called Deepwater.

"If we don't recover (the funding) this project will implode," said Coast Guard Adm. Thomas H. Collins. "We've got to stop the hemorrhaging."

At the end of May, the Coast Guard submitted a more detailed proposal for the Deepwater program in an effort to answer the House panel's questions. The plan stretches out the schedule for buying aircraft and ships, hastens the purchase of some patrol cutters, and upgrades their equipment and capabilities.

Collins said he believes the Coast Guard has provided most of the information necessary to satisfy the lawmakers.

A review by the Government Accountability Office released Tuesday concluded that the Deepwater program has gone over budget and is behind schedule. It said the Coast Guard has made improvements but still must better manage the massive process.

The original Deepwater plan called for a 21-year, $14.4 billion program to replace and update vessels, aircraft, sensors and other systems.