WASHINGTON, D.C.—Citing the vulnerability of the nation’s ports to terrorist attacks, Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Susan Collins (R-ME) and Ranking Member Joe Lieberman (D-CT) today urged the Administration to include increased funding in next year’s budget to accelerate the completion of the Coast Guard’s Integrated Deepwater System Project.
In a letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Josh Bolten, the Senators wrote, “As the Committee that crafted the legislation establishing the Department of Homeland Security, we continue to focus on our nation’s vulnerability to terrorist attack through our port system; we strive to find ways to improve port security from coast to coast. …We need to ensure that the Coast Guard has the tools it needs both to defend our ports and waterways and maintain a keen focus on its critical traditional missions—search and rescue, maritime law enforcement, and protection of fisheries and the environment.”
They pointed out that the Coast Guard’s fleet is one of the oldest of the world’s 41 maritime fleets, and its maintenance costs are spiraling upward at an alarming rate. Most of the Coast Guard’s cutters were built 30 years ago, and many of its aircraft are from the 1970s and 1980s. The Deepwater project would provide an integrated approach to upgrading existing assets while transitioning to newer, more capable platforms with improved communications and surveillance equipment and innovative logistics support systems. Under the current budget plan, Deepwater acquisition is expected to take 20 years. The Senators are urging the Administration to provide extra funding upfront to complete the acquisition in 10 years, an investment that is estimated to save $4 billion in acquisition costs over the life of the project.
By accelerating the project, the Coast Guard would gain significantly more mission hours—almost one million—dedicated to homeland security and other Coast Guard missions over the life of the current 20-year plan. “These are not only additional hours, but more capable hours spent using technologically advanced assets within Deepwater’s fully interoperable systems approach,” the Senators wrote.
“The nation simply cannot afford to wait another 20 years for the Coast Guard to employ more effective and reliable assets in the name of better homeland security. We ask that you provide funding for Deepwater at $1.892 billion in 2005 to firmly establish the program on a 10-year track,” Senators Collins and Lieberman wrote.
This is the second year that Senators Collins and Lieberman have voiced strong support for accelerating the project.
The text of the letter appears below.
November 13, 2003
The Honorable Joshua B. Bolten
Director
Office of Management and Budget
725 17th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20503
Dear Director Bolten:
As you prepare the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2005 Budget Request, the Committee on Governmental Affairs urges you to provide $1.892 billion to accelerate the Coast Guard’s Integrated Deepwater System project. Last March, the Coast Guard reported to Congress, as required by the Homeland Security Act of 2002, on the feasibility of accelerating completion of its Deepwater acquisition from 20 years to 10 years. The report concluded that speeding up this important program was not only feasible, but would ensure delivery of a more robust homeland security presence and capability sooner.
As the Committee that crafted the legislation establishing the Department of Homeland Security, we continue to focus on our nation’s vulnerability to terrorist attack through our port system; we strive to find ways to improve port security from coast to coast. The Coast Guard, as the lead federal agency for maritime homeland security, has been reshaping itself for the past two years to better protect our shores from terrorism. We need to ensure that the Coast Guard has the tools it needs both to defend our ports and waterways and maintain a keen focus on its critical traditional missions – search and rescue, maritime law enforcement, and protection of fisheries and the environment.
The Coast Guard’s fleet is one of the oldest of the world’s 41 maritime fleets, and its maintenance costs are spiraling upward at an alarming rate. Most of the Coast Guard’s cutters were built 30 years ago, and many of its aircraft are from the 1970s and 1980s. These aging assets face declining readiness at a time when the Coast Guard must be on the highest alert. Replacing these less reliable ships and aircraft sooner is simply good government practice.
In the Report to Congress on the Feasibility of Accelerating the Integrated Deepwater System, the Coast Guard acknowledges that a 10-year implementation schedule would require extra funding up front, but that investment would be offset by an estimated savings of $4 billion in acquisition costs over the life of the project. What we gain by accelerating the project is significantly more mission hours – almost one million – dedicated to homeland security and other Coast Guard missions over the life of the current 20-year plan. These are not only additional hours, but more capable hours spent using technologically advanced assets within Deepwater’s fully interoperable systems approach.
The nation simply cannot afford to wait another 20 years for the Coast Guard to employ more effective and reliable assets in the name of better homeland security. We ask that you provide funding for Deepwater at $1.892 billion in 2005 to firmly establish the program on a 10-year track.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on issues of interest to us and within the purview of the Committee on Governmental Affairs.
Sincerely,
Susan M. Collins
Chairman
Joseph I. Lieberman
Ranking Member