Press Releases

Leaders of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee introduced bipartisan legislation today to reauthorize, strengthen, and support the United States Coast Guard.

As one of our Nation’s five armed services, the Coast Guard carries out critical missions to save lives, safeguard our shores, protect living marine resources, and help ensure a 21^st century maritime transportation system for America. 

The Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2017 (H.R. 2518) authorizes the Coast Guard for two years to support the Service’s missions.  The legislation helps to replace and modernize the Coast Guard’s aging assets in a cost effective and efficient manner, enhances oversight, reduces inefficiencies to save taxpayer dollars, and promotes the use of modern 21^st century technologies.

“The Coast Guard is a military service with a unique mission responsibility to protect America’s shores and waterways,” said Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-CA).  “It’s a service that has always done more with less, but if we truly expect the Coast Guard to remain at the leading edge of drug interdiction and American security, the Coast Guard will need to be treated more like its counterparts and receive the funding and resources it needs – as well as the authority to build and acquire assets more quickly and for less cost.  This is a bill that will help make the Coast Guard even more effective and efficient, and I’m confident that it will receive strong bipartisan support.”   

“In addition to robust funding for the Coast Guard, this year’s bill has many other significant provisions for national security, American manufacturing, and public safety,” said Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee John Garamendi (D-CA).  “This bill will advance the development of eLORAN, a crucially needed backup system for GPS navigation, and it will authorize the National Academy of Sciences to study the potential of autonomous vessels to improve the Coast Guard’s mission capabilities.  And it also advances public safety by making kill switches a build requirement for larger recreational vessels, which will help prevent many injuries and deaths. I thank Subcommittee Chairman Hunter, as well as Committee Chairmen Shuster and DeFazio, for their hard work on this important legislation.”

“Each and every day, the men and women of the Coast Guard work tirelessly to promote commerce, save lives, and protect our maritime borders and laws,” said Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-PA).  “Congress needs to act to ensure the Coast Guard has the tools necessary to complete its many critical missions, and this legislation accomplishes that goal.”

“For more than 100 years, the Coast Guard has kept our ports and waterways secure, protected our shores and communities, and responded to disasters or emergencies affecting our mariners, fishermen, and the general public,” said Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Ranking Member Peter DeFazio (D-OR).  “Congress must ensure that the Coast Guard has the resources and assets necessary to accomplish its missions, and this bipartisan bill attempts to meet that shared goal.  I’m glad the Committee has again worked in a cooperative manner to produce bipartisan legislation that advances the interests of the Coast Guard and the U.S. maritime industry.”

Click here for a summary of the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2017.