Hearing

Washington, D.C. – Opening remarks, as prepared, of Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee Chairman Daniel Webster (R-FL) from hearing, entitled “Always Ready: A Day in the Life of a U.S Coast Guard Sentinel”:

Today our subcommittee meets to highlight the extraordinary successes of the men and women of the Coast Guard. At the same time, we are here to examine what investments must be made into the Coast Guard’s most valuable resource: its people.

I’d like to welcome our witnesses – Vice Admiral Thomas Allan Jr., Deputy Commandant for Mission Support, and Master Chief Heath Jones, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard. 

First, I would like to thank the four junior enlisted members we just finished having lunch with. Chief Petty Officer Casper and Petty Officers Sizer, Ford, and Willis are great examples of the many Coast Guard enlisted members who make the Service work every day. I applaud them for their service.   

At every rank, Coast Guard members perform extraordinary tasks in service to our nation. Nearly every week there’s a news article highlighting their work – conducting search and rescue operations in life threatening conditions, executing perilous high-speed drug interceptions, and supporting the United States’ scientific community through ice breaking operations in the most remote regions on Earth.

One of the greatest strengths of the Coast Guard is its people. Coast Guard members are resilient, capable, skilled, and motivated. But as the Commandant has said, the readiness of the Coast Guard depends on its ability to support its people.

This support should include well maintained physical assets, like capable ships, aircraft, and infrastructure. It must also extend to personal factors like housing, medical care, schooling, and childcare that influence the decision of members and their families to join or remain in the Coast Guard.

Regrettably, in many of these areas the Coast Guard has room for improvement. Chronic underfunding by presidents and Congress has left shoreside facilities, including housing, in disrepair; childcare options are scarce; and aging assets are the norm.  

Short nearly ten percent of its workforce, and facing ongoing recruiting and retention struggles, prioritizing the wellbeing of Sentinels is more important than ever. I am encouraged to hear that you are on track to reach your recruiting goal for 2024, but this is no time to take your foot off the gas, as a workforce shortage still remains. So today, I look forward to hearing how the Coast Guard is taking care of its members and their families so it can be the employer of choice.

On that note, while it is not the purpose of this hearing, the Coast Guard recently informed this committee that not only has it failed to produce statutorily required acquisition planning documents for the last nine years, it has no intention of submitting a major acquisition program report at any point in the future. Similarly, we are still awaiting the Fiscal Year 2024 and Fiscal Year 2025 Capital Investment Plans. 

As a law enforcement agency, the Coast Guard cannot just pick and choose what laws it follows. A long-term acquisition plan is essential to providing Coast Guard members with the assets and support they need to do their missions, as both the lunch earlier and this hearing will highlight. If the Coast Guard maintains its stance that it is unable to produce this information, we will have no choice but to consider its inability to conduct meaningful acquisition planning in its future authorizations.

This is my warning to the Coast Guard – please start saving yourself from your own sinking ship.

To our witnesses — thank you for participating today. This committee truly believes that you represent the world’s best Coast Guard. Today, we hope to hear how Congress can help keep that tradition alive.