[House Hearing, 115 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
COAST GUARD MODERNIZATION AND RECAPITALIZATION: STATUS AND FUTURE
=======================================================================
(115-56)
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON
COAST GUARD AND MARITIME TRANSPORTATION
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON
TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
SEPTEMBER 26, 2018
__________
Printed for the use of the
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available online at: https://www.govinfo.gov/committee/house-
transportation?path=/browsecommittee/chamber/house/committee/
______
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
34-009 PDF WASHINGTON : 2019
transportation
COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE
BILL SHUSTER, Pennsylvania, Chairman
DON YOUNG, Alaska PETER A. DeFAZIO, Oregon
JOHN J. DUNCAN, Jr., Tennessee, ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, District of
Vice Chair Columbia
FRANK A. LoBIONDO, New Jersey EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON, Texas
SAM GRAVES, Missouri ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland
ERIC A. ``RICK'' CRAWFORD, Arkansas RICK LARSEN, Washington
LOU BARLETTA, Pennsylvania MICHAEL E. CAPUANO, Massachusetts
BOB GIBBS, Ohio GRACE F. NAPOLITANO, California
DANIEL WEBSTER, Florida DANIEL LIPINSKI, Illinois
JEFF DENHAM, California STEVE COHEN, Tennessee
THOMAS MASSIE, Kentucky ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey
MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina JOHN GARAMENDI, California
SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania HENRY C. ``HANK'' JOHNSON, Jr.,
RODNEY DAVIS, Illinois Georgia
MARK SANFORD, South Carolina ANDRE CARSON, Indiana
ROB WOODALL, Georgia RICHARD M. NOLAN, Minnesota
TODD ROKITA, Indiana DINA TITUS, Nevada
JOHN KATKO, New York SEAN PATRICK MALONEY, New York
BRIAN BABIN, Texas ELIZABETH H. ESTY, Connecticut,
GARRET GRAVES, Louisiana Vice Ranking Member
BARBARA COMSTOCK, Virginia LOIS FRANKEL, Florida
DAVID ROUZER, North Carolina CHERI BUSTOS, Illinois
MIKE BOST, Illinois JARED HUFFMAN, California
RANDY K. WEBER, Sr., Texas JULIA BROWNLEY, California
DOUG LaMALFA, California FREDERICA S. WILSON, Florida
BRUCE WESTERMAN, Arkansas DONALD M. PAYNE, Jr., New Jersey
LLOYD SMUCKER, Pennsylvania ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California
PAUL MITCHELL, Michigan BRENDA L. LAWRENCE, Michigan
JOHN J. FASO, New York MARK DeSAULNIER, California
A. DREW FERGUSON IV, Georgia STACEY E. PLASKETT, Virgin Islands
BRIAN J. MAST, Florida
JASON LEWIS, Minnesota
MIKE GALLAGHER, Wisconsin
VACANCY
------ 7
Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation
BRIAN J. MAST, Florida, Chairman
DON YOUNG, Alaska JOHN GARAMENDI, California
FRANK A. LoBIONDO, New Jersey ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland
GARRET GRAVES, Louisiana RICK LARSEN, Washington
DAVID ROUZER, North Carolina JARED HUFFMAN, California
RANDY K. WEBER, Sr., Texas ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California
JASON LEWIS, Minnesota, Vice Chair STACEY E. PLASKETT, Virgin Islands
VACANCY PETER A. DeFAZIO, Oregon (Ex
BILL SHUSTER, Pennsylvania (Ex Officio)
Officio)
CONTENTS
Page
Summary of Subject Matter........................................ iv
WITNESSES
Admiral Karl L. Schultz, Commandant, U.S. Coast Guard:
Oral statement............................................... 4
Prepared statement........................................... 6
SUBMISSIONS FOR THE RECORD
Admiral Karl L. Schultz, Commandant, U.S. Coast Guard, responses
to requests for information
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
COAST GUARD MODERNIZATION AND RECAPITALIZATION: STATUS AND FUTURE
----------
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2018
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime
Transportation,
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:02 a.m., in
room 2167, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Brian J. Mast
(Chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
Mr. Mast. The subcommittee will come to order.
Without objection, the Chair is authorized to declare a
recess at any time.
Today we hold a hearing on the Coast Guard modernization
program, which started over 10 years ago and has persisted
through the tenure of three Commandants. Today we will hear
from the 26th Coast Guard Commandant on the status of a decade-
old modernization program and his vision for the future of this
program and the Service.
Modernization is especially important as the Coast Guard
faces some unique challenges, increasing cyber threats, growing
maritime transportation in the Arctic with limited
infrastructure, while also working to complement its assets
with emerging technologies to conduct its 11 statutory
missions.
In tandem with the modernization program, the Service is
undertaking a multidecade recapitalization of aging assets, the
replacement of vessels, aircraft, and shore infrastructure. The
Coast Guard is nearing completion of production on the National
Security Cutters and Fast Response Cutters while ramping up
efforts on the Offshore Patrol Cutters and starting
construction on the first vessel, a new polar icebreaking
fleet.
Successfully acquiring new and relevant assets is essential
to a modern and responsive Coast Guard. As it modernizes its
fleets of assets, the Coast Guard needs to determine its
manpower needs. New assets may not have the personnel needs of
old assets, while emerging technologies might also allow for
more efficient placement and usage of Coast Guard personnel.
How the Coast Guard brings all of these parts together is
important to the success of the Service efficiently and
effectively conducting its missions and supporting its
servicemembers.
As we near the end of another active hurricane season, we
see the Coast Guard at the front lines of the response efforts
to our Nation's emergencies. We are grateful for the Coast
Guard servicemen and servicewomen who have contributed to the
response and the recovery efforts. I just got to witness those
efforts personally down in North Carolina.
These events remind us that the continued success of the
Coast Guard is reliant on an effective and an efficient
modernization plan that is implemented by trained personnel
using capable assets and technology. In Florida, we are
familiar with the significant role of the Coast Guard in
responding to national emergencies and disasters.
I would like to recognize Admiral Schultz, many Active Duty
service tours in Florida, his service down there, including
most recently as the Director of Operations for U.S. Southern
Command and the Commander of Coast Guard Sector Miami. Very
close to home for me. I thank Admiral Schultz for being here
today, and I look forward to hearing his thoughts on these
issues.
I will now yield to Ranking Member Garamendi for 5 minutes
to make an opening statement that he may have.
Mr. Garamendi. Mr. Chairman, delighted to sit next to you.
Congratulations on assuming this task and the importance of the
Coast Guard, as you well know. So I look forward to working
with you. And we have had a good session with our previous
chair, and I am sure it will be repeated in your tenure as
chair of this committee. So welcome, and congratulations.
I also want to take a moment to acknowledge and welcome
Admiral Schultz to the committee for his first opportunity to
testify as the 26th Commandant of the Coast Guard.
Good morning, and welcome. You have sat in that chair
before but in a different role.
The Coast Guard has now endured some tumultuous times,
especially having to respond and cope with the aftermath of
three consecutive devastating hurricanes last year and, most
recently, Hurricane Florence in the Carolinas. So the Coast
Guard has been busy in your command. Here you go.
I commend the men and women of the Coast Guard for their
stellar response to these disasters and for the unfailing
ability to remain semper paratus--always ready. Whenever,
wherever, you are always good to go.
The Coast Guard also has to contend with other serious
challenges, those of human-induced variety, that either
diminish or erode the Coast Guard's capabilities and mission
readiness. And I would like to explore some of those this
morning.
For example, I have advocated for years that, to sustain
the Coast Guard at a level to meet the demands that we have
placed on it, we have insufficient investments to ensure that
the Coast Guard servicemembers have the assets, the training,
and the support they need to get the job done and done quickly
and correctly.
Consequently, I commended the administration earlier this
year when it requested for the Coast Guard in its fiscal 2018
budget $1.1 billion or 11-percent increase over the fiscal 2017
enacted level. Considering the administration's abysmal fiscal
2017 budget request, which was a cut of $1.3 billion or 14
percent, which fortunately didn't happen, I thought that we had
turned a corner. I am not so sure that my optimism was
justified and may very well have been premature.
Earlier this summer, word leaked out that the
administration was looking to transfer funds from agencies
within the Homeland Security Department, including the Coast
Guard, to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, in
order to fund the administration's highly controversial, if not
inhumane, family separation and deportation activities on the
southern border.
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Ranking Member
Peter DeFazio and I wrote to OMB Director Mick Mulvaney urging
him in the strongest possible terms to not transfer funds from
the Coast Guard and certainly not shortchange the Coast Guard
further as the hurricane season was approaching.
Well, it appears as though our pleas fell on deaf ears.
With no notice to the members of this committee, OMB cut
roughly $32.1 million from the Coast Guard's budget, an amount
roughly equivalent to the entire Coast Guard budgets for both
research and development and environmental compliance and
restoration.
Admiral Schultz, I want to hear it from you where that $32
million came from and what it means to the Coast Guard.
Moreover, I want to learn the impact on your programs.
Aside from trying to provide a stable budget for the Coast
Guard, this Service also must confront new maritime challenges
facing our Nation. As the Arctic warms more quickly, then we
will have as little as 5 to 10 years to get this job done. We
are talking icebreakers, we are talking the High North and what
the strategy is for the Arctic as well as the Antarctic.
Fortunately, we have made some progress on the
recapitalization of the Coast Guard's fleet of heavy
icebreakers. That is good news. The bad news, however,
delivered recently by the Government Accountability Office,
indicates that perhaps the Coast Guard's business case for the
acquisition of the lead ships, Coast Guard icebreakers, has
serious risks, especially with certain design assumptions and
an overoptimistic schedule.
I am not sure I agree with the GAO. I would love to hear
your view on this, Admiral Schultz. We need to find out if the
Coast Guard agrees with those recommendations.
These are just two issues that immediately spring to mind.
There are others, and we will get to those in the Q&A.
In closing, Admiral Schultz, you have assumed command at a
critical juncture in the Coast Guard's history, a time when the
Service is midstream in the most expensive and far-reaching
recapitalization in its history, while simultaneously being
forced to stay ahead of the many turbulent, shifting, economic
and security challenges as well as the environmental challenges
that confront not only the Coast Guard but the world.
Admiral Schultz, your call to build a Coast Guard that is
ready, relevant, and responsive--the three R's--is both
admirable and aspirational. Moreover, such principles are
completely on target with the demands that you have acquired
and inherited as the 26th Commandant. It is my expectation that
you will infuse those principles into the Coast Guard during
your watch, and to that end, we will help you.
Thank you. I yield back.
Mr. Mast. Our witness today is Admiral Karl L. Schultz, who
assumed duties as the 26th Commandant of the Coast Guard in
June 2018.
I ask unanimous consent that our witness's full statement
be included in the record.
Without objection, so ordered.
Since your written testimony has been made a part of the
record, the subcommittee would request that you limit your oral
testimony to no longer than 5 minutes.
Admiral Schultz, you are recognized to give your statement.
TESTIMONY OF ADMIRAL KARL L. SCHULTZ, COMMANDANT, U.S. COAST
GUARD
Admiral Schultz. Good morning, Chairman Mast, Ranking
Member Garamendi, distinguished members of the subcommittee.
Thank you for the opportunity to address you as the 26th
Commandant for my first time.
Our United States Coast Guard safeguards the American
people and promotes economic prosperity. Our leadership and
presence spans from the Arctic to the Persian Gulf to our
inland waterway system. As challenges to our national security
and global influence grow more complex, the need for a ready,
relevant, and responsive Coast Guard has never been greater.
Looking back at the transformative changes that have taken
place within the Coast Guard over the last 15 to 20 years, it
is clear that our efforts to modernize the Service have been
effective. Today, we employ a unified command structure; we
speak with one voice on mission strategy; utilize progressive
business practices; and have made tremendous strides in our
financial management, acquisitions, and human capital
processes.
Moving forward, our soon-to-be-released strategic plan
captures my vision for the Service over the next 4 years,
supports Department of Homeland Security objectives and the
National Security Strategy. Our lines of effort will emphasize
our investment in Service readiness while fine-tuning mission
execution and operational support to meet the needs and demands
of the Nation.
Maximizing readiness today and into the future is my top
priority, and our people are the cornerstone of Service
readiness. We must recruit, support, and retain what I term a
mission-ready total workforce that not only positions the
Service to excel across our full spectrum of missions but also
represents the diverse Nation we serve.
While readiness starts with our servicemembers, we must
also modernize key capabilities and assets. With the support of
the administration and the Congress, we continue to build
momentum on our recapitalization efforts, including our highest
priorities: the Offshore Patrol Cutter and the Polar Security
Cutter.
Beyond surface recapitalization, we must also invest in
reliable C5I enterprise systems and buy down a shore
infrastructure backlog that currently exceeds $1.6 billion,
both of which are critical to our frontline operations and the
operators.
While improving the readiness of our Armed Forces has been
the focus of recent budgetary increases, our Coast Guard, one
of the five armed services, has not received a comparable
increase in our operations and support funding, which is
crucial to keeping our modern assets on the water and operating
at full capacity.
A mission-ready total workforce, coupled with sufficiently
resourced assets, modern systems, and resilient infrastructure,
will enable our Coast Guard to address the Nation's complex
maritime challenges.
Our maritime border to the south is being exploited by
violent transnational criminal organizations, and the Coast
Guard is a key component of a comprehensive approach to border
security. We tackle threats before they reach our shores.
In fiscal year 2017, the Coast Guard interdicted 223 metric
tons--that is 490,000 pounds--of illegal narcotics and
transferred 606 smugglers to the Department of Justice for
prosecution here in the United States. These efforts promote
regional stability in the Central American corridor and deter
illegal immigration at our southern land border.
Our Coast Guard bridges the gap where homeland security and
homeland defense intersect. We seamlessly integrate into
today's joint force, supporting the Department of Defense
across the globe, typically at five of the six geographic
combatant commander regions on a near daily basis. For example,
since 2003, a fleet of six Coast Guard Island-class patrol
boats have provided vital support to the Central Command
commander in Southeast Asia conducting maritime security
operations on the Arabian Gulf.
The Coast Guard also leverages partnerships with maritime
stakeholders to facilitate the safe and efficient transit of
commerce, contributing $4.6 trillion annually to our Nation's
economy.
The Marine Transportation System, a vital latticework of
waterways and seaports, is highly dependent on a complex,
globally networked system of automated technologies, one always
vulnerable to today's cyber disruptions. As the Nation's
maritime first responder, Americans trust their Coast Guard to
thrive in crisis and recovery, and we will continue to deliver
excellence anytime, anywhere.
Less than 2 weeks ago, the Nation once again witnessed the
Coast Guard's bias for action and operational agility. After
Hurricane Florence made landfall, almost 3,000 Coast Guard
responders engaged in search-and-rescue efforts, saving almost
1,000 lives.
As technology advances, global competition surges, our
adversaries become more sophisticated, and the maritime
environment more complex, our Coast Guard provides solutions
from cooperation to armed conflict. As noted in my
introduction, the demand for Coast Guard services has never
been greater.
I look forward to working with this committee to ensure our
Coast Guard remains always ready to meet the maritime
challenges of our great Nation. Thank you for the opportunity
to testify, and I look forward to your questions.
[Admiral Schultz's prepared statement follows:]
Prepared Statement of Admiral Karl L. Schultz, Commandant, U.S. Coast
Guard
introduction
Good afternoon, distinguished members of the subcommittee. It is an
honor and a privilege to appear before you today. Thank you for the
opportunity to address this subcommittee for my first time as the 26th
Commandant of the United States Coast Guard. I look forward to working
with you over the next 4 years to ensure that the Coast Guard remains
Always Ready to meet the maritime needs of our great nation.
Our country is facing an increasingly complex global maritime
environment, driving a demand for Coast Guard services that I feel has
never been greater. As Commandant, I intend to leverage the Coast
Guard's broad authorities, capabilities, and partnerships to safeguard
the American people, promote economic prosperity, and advance our
national interests. Our unique position within the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS), and our enduring operations with the
Department of Defense (DoD), enables us to leverage our specialized
capabilities and drive domestic and international maritime cooperation,
build stakeholder capacity, and exert influence at home and abroad. To
that end, I am steadfastly committed to delivering a mission ready
total workforce that can identify complicated risks, quickly adapt to
change, and thrive in both steady state operations and crisis response.
At the core of this effort are the women and men of the Coast Guard.
Our Active Duty, Reserve, Civilian, and Auxiliary members are the key
to our Service's success and their readiness is my top priority.
In the coming months, I will finalize my vision to move the Service
forward over the next 4 years--The U.S. Coast Guard Strategic Plan
2018-2022--and I look forward to sharing that with you once it is
complete. However, as we map out our future, it is important to assess
where we have been. To borrow a nautical metaphor, only after we ``take
a fix'' to establish our current position can we chart a proper course
to reach our intended destination. In that spirit, over the past
several months my leadership team and I examined the transformative
changes that have taken place within the Coast Guard--known as
``Modernization''--in the recent past.
coast guard modernization
Coast Guard Modernization involved more than simply retooling the
Service's organizational structure or upgrading its assets or
equipment. Modernization fundamentally altered the Coast Guard's way of
doing business across the Service, for every mission, at every level.
Prior to Modernization, geographically separate Coast Guard units
operated largely independent of each other and did not have cohesive,
uniform business processes. Even Areas and Districts tended to
establish region-specific policies, systems, and standards, and relied
on nonstandard equipment. As the Coast Guard's portfolio of
responsibilities steadily increased, a patchwork of region-specific and
program-specific responsibilities made it difficult to manage the
Service's business processes--policy, logistics, acquisitions, finance,
human capital--in a standardized way.
Recognizing the critical need for change, Coast Guard leaders
developed plans to modernize the Service. Those plans were grounded in
a number of principles and priorities, including: centralization of
operational policy at the strategic level; unity of effort across
mission programs and with stakeholders; an emphasis on standardization
of systems, equipment, and processes in mission support; robust
business practices linking strategy to resource allocation; systems
thinking to include improved financial management and acquisition
processes; all of which enabled transparency with internal and external
stakeholders; and smarter use of--and better support for--our Coast
Guard people.
Modernization involved multiple initiatives over a number of years.
It included field-level reorganizations, including the stand-up of
unified Sector commands, as well as consolidation of operational
strategy and mission support in enterprises led by Deputy Commandants.
It also created new functionally based support systems and retooled the
Service's financial management and acquisition processes. The
transformative efforts of Modernization have come to fruition in the
Coast Guard you see today--a military Service that is more efficient,
more nimble, and more effective in carrying out its missions.
dco: speaking with one voice on operational strategy and policy
Prior to Modernization, individual Coast Guard program offices
would develop operational plans and policies largely independent of
each other--without a robust mechanism to ensure alignment with
national and enterprise-wide priorities. The establishment of the
Deputy Commandant for Operations (DCO) injected the necessary oversight
and alignment. DCO now manages and oversees operational planning,
policy, and external engagements for all mission programs at the
strategic level. It also coordinates with external stakeholders to
advance national, homeland security, and Coast Guard strategic goals,
working through key external forums such as the National Security
Council, the Homeland Security Council, the DHS, and the DoD. Further,
through its Assistant Commandant for Intelligence (CG-2), DCO acts as a
member of our nation's Intelligence Community (IC), coordinating with
other IC members to design reliable, all-source products that benefit
both the Coast Guard and other intelligence customers--creating
strategic advantages for U.S. forces worldwide.
The Coast Guard is a strategy-driven organization, and DCO uses an
enterprise-wide perspective to balance and calibrate strategy, plans,
and policy across all Coast Guard mission programs. When released, the
Coast Guard Strategic Plan 2018-2022 will function as the Service's
overarching strategic document that establishes our priorities and
details the supporting objectives. It will be informed by and directly
support the National Security Strategy and the DHS goals and
priorities. The long-term Coast Guard strategies and strategic
outlooks, such as the Western Hemisphere, Cyber, Arctic, Maritime
Commerce and Human Capital, are enduring and will remain essential in
addressing the challenges for which they were generated. Each of these
strategies, along with other functional and geographic strategic plans,
will be framed and implemented through the lens of the Coast Guard
Strategic Plan 2018-2022.
dcms: mission support for the 21st century
Mission support also underwent a significant overhaul through
Modernization. For 200 years, Coast Guard mission support functions
were distributed across separate commands and program offices, relying
on different information systems and business processes to perform the
same functions--acquisition, logistics, maintenance, and supply
management--for different asset types. Today, the Deputy Commandant for
Mission Support (DCMS) is the single source that delivers support to
enable the Coast Guard to effectively carry out its missions.
Using a business model drawn from best practices in the maintenance
and overhaul industry and combined with support concepts from the Coast
Guard aviation community, DCMS manages the entire life cycle of Coast
Guard assets from acquisition and accession through decommissioning and
retirement.
Prior to Modernization, the Coast Guard's acquisition process faced
significant challenges including out of date policies, inconsistent
standards, and confusing governance. Under the DCMS umbrella, we
modernized our acquisition program to better manage the multi-billion
dollar investments that are reshaping our operational capabilities. As
the Lead Systems Integrator for major acquisitions, the Coast Guard now
collaborates with technical authorities and partner agencies to manage
the risks associated with the engineering, technical, and business
challenges that confront all complex acquisition projects. This
streamlined organization has also enabled tighter alignment with the
DHS Security Acquisition Management and Review Process--facilitating
unity of effort through transparency and regular communication with the
Department.
DCMS also brought improvements in human capital processes. The
Human Resources (HR) community recruits, hires, trains, and retains a
diverse workforce to meet the human capital needs of the Coast Guard.
It also provides a host of products and services, including training
and education, compensation, health care, work-life programs, housing,
safe working conditions, morale and recreation programs, and leadership
opportunities. By adopting a functionally based approach consistent
with Modernization, the H.R. community can now better meet the
personnel needs of the Coast Guard--and the needs of the Coast Guard's
workforce.
investing in a 21st century coast guard
At the same time, the Coast Guard was undergoing the transformative
changes of Modernization, the Service was simultaneously recapitalizing
its aging fleet of vessels, aircraft, systems, and shore
infrastructure. Today those efforts continue and recapitalization
remains a top Service priority. The support of this subcommittee has
helped us make tremendous progress, and it is critical we buildupon our
successes to continue to field assets that meet cost, performance, and
schedule milestones.
With the support of the Administration and Congress, we are making
significant progress toward building new icebreaking Polar Security
Cutters (PSCs). This past March, we released a request for proposal
(RFP), setting the stage for award of a Detail Design and Construction
(DD&C) contract in fiscal year 2019 for the construction of up to three
heavy Polar icebreakers. We are as close as we have ever been to
recapitalizing our Polar icebreaking fleet; continued investment now is
vital to solidify our standing as an Arctic nation and affirms the
Coast Guard's role in providing assured, year-round access to the Polar
regions for decades to come.
Later this year, we plan to cut steel on the first Offshore Patrol
Cutter (OPC). The OPC will provide the tools to effectively enforce
Federal laws, secure our maritime borders, disrupt Transnational
Criminal Organizations (TCOs), and respond to 21st century threats.
Continued progress on this acquisition is absolutely vital to
recapitalizing our aging fleet of Medium Endurance Cutters (MECs), some
of which have already been in service for over a half century. We are
in advanced planning to extend the service life of a portion of our MEC
fleet as a bridge until OPCs are delivered, beginning in 2021. In
concert with the extended range and capability of the National Security
Cutter (NSC) and the enhanced coastal patrol capability of the Fast
Response Cutter (FRC), OPCs will be the backbone of the Coast Guard's
strategy to project and maintain offshore presence.
Production of the fleet of new FRCs is on budget and on schedule.
Earlier this summer, we exercised the second option under the Phase II
contract to begin production of six more FRCs. The fiscal year 2018
appropriation also included funding for two additional FRCs, beyond our
domestic program of record of 58 hulls, to initiate the vital
replacement of our six patrol boats supporting long-term U.S. Central
Command missions in southwest Asia.
The Service continues efforts to accelerate recapitalization of our
long-overlooked fleet of 35 river, construction, and inland buoy
tenders, with an average age of over 52 years. Replacing this aging
fleet with Waterways Commerce Cutters (WCC), for a modest cost, is
critical to sustaining the overall safety of our nation's marine
transportation system, which contributes $4.6 trillion annually to our
Gross Domestic Product.
We are also making progress with fielding unmanned aircraft
systems, and are working toward awarding a service contract to operate
small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) on our NSC fleet. Further, we
are continuing our partnership with Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
and exploring options to expand the joint land-based UAS program to
enhance intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and
support end-game prosecution in the maritime transit zone.
In concert with efforts to acquire new assets, we are focused on
sustaining our existing fleet of cutters and aircraft. The current work
being conducted at the Coast Guard Yard in Curtis Bay, Maryland,
includes a Service Life Extension Project (SLEP) on our icebreaking
tugs and a Midlife Maintenance Availability (MMA) on sea-going buoy
tenders to address obsolescence of critical ship components and
engineering systems. In addition to vessel sustainment projects, work
continues at the Aviation Logistics Center in Elizabeth City, North
Carolina, where centralized, world-class depot maintenance has been
crucial to sustaining our rotary and fixed-wing aviation assets. The
Coast Guard has initiated efforts to extend the service life of our
aging helicopter fleet until the mid-2030's, when we plan to
recapitalize these assets in conjunction with DoD's Future Vertical
Lift program.
We are also mindful of the condition of our aging shore
infrastructure and the adverse effects it has on readiness across all
mission areas. The Coast Guard currently has a $1.7 billion shore
infrastructure construction backlog that includes piers, sectors,
stations, aviation facilities, base facilities, training centers, and
military housing units. We appreciate the tremendous support of
Congress for supplemental funding appropriated in fiscal year 2018 to
rebuild our damaged shore infrastructure to resilient, modern-day
standards after the devastating series of hurricanes. Continued
investment in shore infrastructure is vital to modernizing the Coast
Guard and equipping our workforce with the facilities they require to
meet mission.
looking ahead: ready, relevant, and responsive in the twenty-first
century
Through my Guiding Principles--Ready, Relevant, and Responsive--the
Coast Guard will continue to invest in the future of our Service and
apply Modernization principles and lessons learned to best position the
Service to meet the ever increasing demand for Coast Guard services.
Ready: My top priority for the Coast Guard is readiness; we must
build a mission ready total workforce of Active Duty, Reserve,
Civilian, and Auxiliary members by rethinking how we deliver personnel
services, and how we recruit and retain an inclusive team. While our
people are the cornerstone of Coast Guard readiness, we must also
continue to field modernized, capable assets and provide sufficient
resources to operate and maintain them. This means continuing to
recapitalize our surface fleet, including the important acquisitions of
the OPC and PSC, ensuring dependable information technology systems,
and identifying emerging technologies to meet future readiness needs.
Relevant: The Coast Guard possesses unique authorities, broad
jurisdiction, flexible operational capabilities, and an expansive
network of domestic and international partnerships. These are all
fundamental to addressing the nation's increasingly complex maritime
challenges. As a key component in the DHS, we secure the nation's
maritime borders, protect our maritime infrastructure from potential
attacks, and enable the efficient movement of legitimate maritime trade
and travel. As a military Service, we advance American influence by
cooperating globally in ways that other military services cannot.
However, we are keenly aware of the increasingly competitive security
environment and are diligently preparing to respond to evolving
national security threats.
Responsive: As the nation's premier maritime first responder, the
Coast Guard thrives in crisis response and recovery. Consistent with
focus areas of Modernization, we must improve risk management,
integrate planning efforts across the government, and incentivize
information sharing to ensure we are ready to answer the call. Our bias
for action and propensity to exercise on-scene initiative are ingrained
in our Service's character and allows us to meet the dynamic needs of
the nation--in response to crisis or in a complex steady-state
operating environment.
conclusion
Twenty years ago, the Coast Guard's field units covered overlapping
areas; its strategy was stove-piped within independent program offices;
and its business models were inefficient. Today, the Coast Guard
employs a unified command structure at each Coast Guard Sector; speaks
with one voice on mission strategy; employs modernized business
practices; and has made tremendous strides in its financial management,
acquisition processes, and the use of human capital. Modernization and
its underlying principles set the Coast Guard on a proper course,
leading from its industrial age roots to the information age in which
the Service now finds itself. Our heading will remain steady, and we
will continue to apply Modernization principles and lessons learned as
we build on our successes and close the policy and performance gaps we
uncover along the way. By doing so, we will keep the Coast Guard
operating in a manner that the country expects and deserves--Ready,
Relevant, and Responsive to meet its maritime service needs. Thank you
for the opportunity to testify today. I look forward to your questions.
Mr. Mast. Thank you, Admiral Schultz.
I will now recognize Members for 5 minutes of questioning,
beginning with myself.
And, again, I do thank you for your service. It was an
honor to see your men and women out there on the ground in
North Carolina doing their work. It was incredible to see. And
they were making a difference in the lives of the people that I
got to speak to in and around the communities.
I would like to touch off a little bit on what is going on
with property and significant real property portfolio that
requires constant maintenance and management that the Coast
Guard has.
Through modernization, you have established the Shore
Infrastructure Logistics Center in order to enhance the
acquisition, maintenance, alteration, refurbishment, and
disposal of shore facilities in order to enable the Coast
Guard's mission execution.
However, much of the legacy shore infrastructure management
structure, including civil engineering units which operate
outside of the standard district and area of geographical
constraints, those remain in place. We understand that your
civil engineers remain responsible for not only construction
and maintenance but also overall management of the real
property portfolio.
So this is where I wanted to ask, how do you plan to
continue to modernize and enhance the Coast Guard's shore
infrastructure management in order to maximize the usage of
existing space more efficiently and more effectively spend that
limited funding that is available?
Admiral Schultz. Well, thank you, Chairman, for the
question.
We do work our real property, our facilities, through our
Shore Infrastructure Logistics Center. That is part of our
modernized efforts where, essentially, we have a holistic,
across-the-service look.
In past years, in the premodernized Coast Guard, we would
look through regional commanders--the Atlantic Command, the
Pacific Command, down through the nine districts. Now we have a
holistic look. I think we make decisions that are enterprise
decisions, that take account of risk, that allow us to put
finite dollars against the most pressing capital projects.
We do have, as I mentioned, a shoreside backlog that
exceeds $1.6 billion. The supplemental dollars that the
Congress awarded us in the 2018 timeframe to make right after
Hurricane Matthew and deal with it in 2016 and deal with the
2017 hurricane season injected, you know, a good chunk of
moneys on top of the work that was ongoing for actual repairs,
some resiliency money. That has been very helpful. That bought
down about $100 million of that backlog.
And the backlog has grown. It remains about $1.6 billion,
but it was really on a trajectory to $1.7 billion.
I will tell you today, Chairman, I believe our modernized
enterprise is in a better situation. We are looking to bring on
a senior individual to help manage that infusion of moneys. Our
shore infrastructure, we have had some reductions in bodies in
that space. So we are bringing someone in to make sure we
execute the funds that Congress allocated to us in terms of
supplements for the hurricanes and get after our ongoing
challenges in what has been--I hate to use the term--a bit of a
neglected space, but organizations make choices, and we have
been funded at a Budget Control Act level here the last 7 or 8
years, and we haven't got the shore infrastructure dollars we
need.
But we have seen an uptick there. I will continue to talk
about that in my appearances before you and on the Senate side
in the months ahead.
Mr. Mast. And, Admiral, speaking of those constraints that
you mentioned, you know, how do you actually foresee
rationalizing the Service's existing holdings into a more
coherent, more easily managed portfolio based on the Coast
Guard's mission needs rather than what you might be able to
call a mishmash of legacy properties currently owned by the
Coast Guard?
I have seen it worked on a number of different fronts, to
include in my area, you know, properties that just haven't been
used for very long periods of time, maybe don't even have any
infrastructure on them whatsoever. How do you foresee
rationalizing them?
Admiral Schultz. Mr. Chairman, I would like to actually get
back to you and maybe give your team a brief on this.
We constantly are looking at those, and it is the puts and
takes. There are those legacy properties that, arguably, may
have not been addressed sufficiently or in a timely fashion, as
you see as you sit in your Florida congressional district,
versus the incoming work. And there is a finite amount of human
capacity to get after those challenges.
We are aware of those. We are tracking those. Probably best
if I could defer that to maybe come in and brief your staff and
give you some of the specifics. I am not well-positioned today
to tell you, you know, across the country where those are.
But we constantly look at that inventory. And I think we do
that more effectively today. Arguably, do we do it as
effectively as this committee would like from an oversight
perspective? There is probability some room for improvement
there.
Mr. Mast. Thank you, Admiral.
I did also want to ask, you know, when recapitalization is
actually complete, the Coast Guard will have over 15,000 less
major cutter operational hours than it did just 15 years ago.
And we are looking at the increasing mission sets. So, while
modern cutters, that may be more capable, less operational
hours will mean less coverage. So, in order to bridge that
projected capability gap, the Coast Guard would need four
additional National Security Cutters, more than four Offshore
Patrol Cutters.
So how do you see the Coast Guard continuing to respond to
increasing demands despite that capability gap?
Admiral Schultz. Well, Mr. Chairman, as I think you know,
the program of record for the National Security Cutter was
eight vessels. The 2018 omnibus actually funds a 10th and 11th
National Security Cutter. One version of the appropriations
bill for 2019 that is under deliberation by the Congress right
now includes long lead time, potentially, for a 12th National
Security Cutter.
So we did get more National Security Cutters in the program
of record, which will bite into a little bit of that shortfall
you speak to. We are very encouraged. I think we will be
announcing this week a production award for the first OPC and
long-lead materials for number 2. That is a program of record
of 25 ships. Obviously, the Congress will have an opportunity
to weigh in if they think 25 ships is the appropriate number.
We are well into the build-out of 58 Fast Response Cutters.
The Fast Response Cutters are proving significantly more
capable than the 110-foot Island-class cutters they replaced.
The Fast Response Cutters, 154 feet over waterline versus 110
feet. It has a stern-launch boat. It has highly sophisticated
C5ISR capability. So that vessel, we just pushed one out of
Hawaii past Guam 2,000 miles away. We couldn't do that with an
Island-class patrol boat yesteryear.
So I think what we are seeing and we are just starting to
get our arms and brains around is just how much more capable
these assets are. That National Security Cutter is able to
contribute and process national-level security. And on the
water, we are just amazed almost daily about what that ship is
capable to do in the fight on drugs. We rolled the National
Security Cutter into San Juan Harbor during the response to
Hurricane Irma. We moved our command-and-control node from
shore that was damaged onto that National Security Cutter and
didn't miss a beat.
So I think there is a conversation there about just how
much more capable the new assets are versus just solely
focusing on the number of hours.
Mr. Mast. Very good, Admiral. I appreciate your response to
my questions.
I will now recognize Mr. Garamendi for 5 minutes of
questions.
Mr. Garamendi. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Well, let's start with the $34 million or so that was
transferred. Where did it come from? What does it mean to the
operations of the Coast Guard that you have $34 million less,
or maybe even more than $34 million? Bring us up to date. Where
did the money--where was it taken from your budget to transfer
to ICE? What does that mean to your operations?
Admiral Schultz. Well, Ranking Member Garamendi, yes, in
fact, it was about a $32 million-plus transfer. What I would
say, sir, is, is that without consequence? Absolutely not. You
know, an organization that takes every dollar supported by the
taxpayer towards I think what I would say is goodness for the
Nation, obviously every nickel matters.
But, in this case, I would say we have the maneuver space.
Reprogrammings are a typical part of budgets. We are 1 of 22
agencies that sit within the Department of Homeland Security.
As I have been in and out of Washington the last 15, 20 years
of my life, I am not sure I have seen a budget cycle where
there hasn't been a reprogramming in the department the Coast
Guard has sat in, whether that was Department of Transportation
of yesteryear or DHS today.
That said, sir, I think to answer in response to your
question, I think we take some shortages on spare parts. Some
of it goes towards, you know, efforts to support shore
infrastructure recapitalization, in terms of the execution of
that. There is consequence, but it is manageable. I will assure
you it has not diminished our ability to respond to frontline
operations, such as recent Hurricane Florence response
operations and recovery operations.
Mr. Garamendi. So you are saying it wasn't terribly
important and therefore we can take $34 million out of next
year's budget?
Admiral Schultz. Sir, I am not saying that taking a dollar
from the Coast Guard budget isn't important. I will say, you
know, as an operating organization, as a component under a
larger department with broad-ranging duties spread across 22
components, it is a part of, I guess----
Mr. Garamendi. You have been involved in Hurricane Florence
recovery?
Admiral Schultz. Sir, I will tell you with great certainty
it did not diminish our ability to respond to Hurricane
Florence in any capacity.
Mr. Garamendi. What was the daily cost of the search and
rescue in Florence?
Admiral Schultz. Sir, I don't have a number. I would say
our search and rescue costs are rolled into our ops and
support. Our budget model, as you know, is very complicated
because of our multimission nature.
But we surged 27 aircraft essentially operating out of the
Carolinas. We had 11 fixed-wing aircraft. We surged, you know,
upwards of 3,000 Coast Guard men and women. We had the maneuver
space in our budget, sir, to do that without any diminishment
of capability or capacity.
Mr. Garamendi. And Florence is the last hurricane this
year?
Admiral Schultz. Sir, as the chairman talked about, as the
season, you know, drove towards an end here, it is pretty early
in the year, and typically we are on high alert until the end
of the hurricane season on 30 November, sir. So we are paying a
lot of the attention to the Atlantic Basin activity.
Mr. Garamendi. So you will be able to develop and deliver
to this committee the average daily cost of those 27 aircraft
and 3,000 personnel that were involved in Florence?
Admiral Schultz. Yes, sir, 3,000, but we will deliver that
back to you, Mr. Ranking Member.
Mr. Garamendi. The average daily cost?
Admiral Schultz. Yes, sir.
[The information from the U.S. Coast Guard follows:]
With the exception of activated reservists, costs for Coast
Guard personnel responding to Hurricane Florence would have
also occurred in the performance of normal Coast Guard
missions. These are not included in the estimated cost of the
response. However, the travel costs for those responders not
permanently stationed in the response area are included in the
estimated cost of the response.
Similarly, Coast Guard assets supporting the Hurricane Florence
response would have otherwise been utilized to support normal
Coast Guard missions. Only costs associated with use beyond
what would have occurred in the course of normal operations are
included in the estimated cost of the response.
The costs for responding to Hurricane Florence are based on the
11-day period during which the National Response Coordination
Center activated before standing down (September 9-20, 2018).
The estimated total cost of the Coast Guard's response to
Hurricane Florence was $7,115,924. The estimated daily cost was
$646,902.
In addition to these estimated costs for the Hurricane Florence
response, there is an opportunity cost for the Coast Guard that
is more difficult to quantify. As the Service surged assets and
personnel from around the country to support the response,
normal Coast Guard operations were delayed or suspended at
multiple shore units; Coast Guard cutters interrupted or
deferred maintenance and diverted from patrols to support
response operations; aircraft scheduled for maritime patrols
were reassigned to provide transportation and overflight
capability for the response; training for Deployable
Specialized Forces was canceled to allow teams to deploy for
shallow water rescue support. While this opportunity cost is
difficult to estimate, it further erodes the future readiness
of the Coast Guard.
Mr. Garamendi. I would appreciate that. I suspect there
will be another hurricane. And that $34 million is coming out
of something.
Admiral Schultz. Aye, Mr. Garamendi. Got it.
Mr. Garamendi. OK.
Potomac River security closings, big hullabaloo about that.
In 2017, Admiral Zukunft said that the eastern side of the
Potomac would not be closed whenever the President arrived on
the western side. Those closings, I am told, are now--that the
east is closed and the west is closed whenever the President is
at his golf course.
Could you bring us up to date on the current policy?
Admiral Schultz. Yes, sir. Ranking Member Garamendi,
regarding the river closure, there is a river closure when the
President is at the Trump National Golf Club there, but there
is what I would say is a reasonable accommodation. We provide
security at the behest of the U.S. Secret Service for
Presidential security. They have asked us to mitigate the risks
on that waterway.
I understand there is an ongoing lawsuit filed here
recently earlier this month. There is a mechanism by which
kayakers, canoers, other waterway users can contact Sector
Maryland-National Capital Region. They can request a
passthrough. I believe that area is served by a cellular phone
where there should be a means to reach the sector.
We are aware there is some frustration that, you know, the
final rule went into effect and there has been comments after
that. We are sensitive to those comments. We will reach back to
waterway users, understand suggested alternatives and look at
that.
But I will say, first and foremost, as an operating agency
of the Government, we respond to the U.S. Secret Service
request to support the President from a security standpoint.
Mr. Garamendi. Thirty-six times you have closed the river?
Admiral Schultz. Sir, I am not sure the exact number. There
is a significant number of times. But there is a means--what I
would say I think is a reasonable accommodation for folks to
transit through that section of the river. It is about a 2-mile
stretch of the river that is impacted.
Mr. Garamendi. Apparently that is not the case now that
the--your current policy is to close the river completely.
I am out of time.
Admiral Schultz. Mr. Garamendi, I will get back to you. The
closure with no passthrough is not my understanding of the
circumstances. But I will circle back, sir, with you or your
staff and clarify that if I am mistaken on that.
Mr. Garamendi. If you would, please.
Admiral Schultz. Yes, sir.
[The information from the U.S. Coast Guard follows:]
Upon U.S. Secret Service notification that POTUS will be
present at Trump National, U.S. Coast Guard Sector Maryland-NCR
releases a Broadcast Notice to Mariners (BNM) via VHF radio
providing public notification of Security Zone enforcement. The
BNM is then broadcast throughout the enforcement of the
Security Zone. In addition to BNMs, members of the public may
check for notice of enforcement at www.news.uscg.mil/Baltimore/
or call (410) 576-7200 (pre-recorded message when Security Zone
is in effect).
In order to enforce the Security Zone, U.S. Coast Guard Sector
Maryland-NCR partners with the Maryland Department of Natural
Resources who provides a vessel with embarked U.S. Coast Guard
law enforcement and U.S. Secret Service security personnel.
During enforcement, the Maryland side of the Security Zone is a
transit lane. This lane is the designated portion of the river
that vessels may pass through. Prior to entering the transit
lane, vessels should request verbal authorization to pass
through the transit lane from the on-scene law enforcement
vessel, the U.S. Coast Guard Captain of the Port (COTP), or the
COTP's designated representative (can call 410-576-2693, SEC
MNCR Command Center 24x7).
This process is the same as the accommodation announced by ADM
Zukunft in July 2017.
This zone has been enacted approximately twenty-five times.
Mr. Garamendi. I yield back.
Mr. Mast. Thank you, Mr. Garamendi.
The Chair will now recognize Mr. Weber for 5 minutes.
Mr. Weber. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And welcome, Admiral. Congratulations, I think. It is
always good to see you. I really appreciate you all's response
during Hurricane Harvey back along our district.
For the members of the committee that may not know, I have
the first three coastal counties in Texas, starting at
Louisiana, so we were ground zero for Harvey flooding. And let
me just tell you, the Coast Guard got in gear, and it was
amazing what they did.
And, Admiral, you were there, and I appreciated you all's
efforts very greatly.
And so this discussion with Congressman Garamendi about
moving $34 million out is of interest to me, because I have
seen you all up close and personal and what you do and how
important it is.
And so I appreciate that, John, your questioning there.
Admiral, what is the total budget of the Coast Guard? Do
you know offhand?
Admiral Schultz. Congressman Weber, our total budget,
discretionary and nondiscretionary, is a little bit north of
$12 billion here. That was the high-water mark for the Coast
Guard here coming out of the fiscal year 2018 omnibus budget.
Mr. Weber. OK. Thank you.
You mentioned in your comments that modernization has
fundamentally altered the system. And so I want you to talk
about that a little bit. Good, bad, indifferent? Can you effect
that change?
You mentioned several things in your comments about how it
has altered the way that you work together, the different
facets of the Coast Guard. But you are seeing a lot of storms.
Congressman Garamendi was asking you about it, and I am really
a little disappointed that you wouldn't guarantee him no more
hurricanes, you know.
But when you say fundamentally altered, as a new
Commandant, good, bad, indifferent? I know modernization has
helped. Are you able to effect that, be more cohesive? Describe
that for us.
Admiral Schultz. Thank you for the question, Congressman
Weber. And I would say absolutely it has been positive across
the board. It is fundamentally a different approach in how we
do business.
Probably two of the large pieces, if you look at how we
work here in Washington, our Deputy Commandant for Operations
looks strategically at operations policy across the entire
Coast Guard. That is coast to coast; that is our international,
global operations. Our Deputy Commandant for Mission Support
has adopted the best of what was originally our aviation model,
where it had an operations-level and a depot-level maintenance
model. We have visibility on our assets from acquiring of new
assets until we retire them typically many, many years, for the
Coast Guard, usually decades later. We have visibility on
those.
I will give you an example on the maintenance side. So the
270-foot Medium Endurance-class ship, which we have 13 of, we
built them in the mid-1980s. They are 30-plus years old. In the
past, we would have an engineering unit in Portsmouth,
Virginia, where we have five of those ships homeported, that
would do maintenance there. And then we had three ships in
Boston and then another naval engineering support unit that
would do maintenance there. A couple in Key West, a couple in
Maine. They were different. They didn't have visibility across
the budget for the entire Service for that type of ship. Today,
we have a product line that manages all 13 of those 270-foot
ships.
We are making enterprise choices, given finite amounts of
dollars, to say, all right, across that fleet, what has to be
done today to put as many of those ships in the fight as many
days as possible across a given calendar year. I would argue we
are exponentially more strategic. We are allocating taxpayer
dollars in a much more sophisticated and purposeful fashion.
Equipment, our acquisition processes, under mission support
acquisitions resides, human capital resides. All those enabling
functions that allow us to have a Coast Guard that is ready,
relevant, and responsive that I talk about through my guiding
principles, all benefited from this effort to modernize the
Coast Guard.
I am very excited about where we are, and we will continue
to embrace those principles of modernizing to make sure we are
putting the best Coast Guard forward to support the Nation.
Mr. Weber. Well, and we appreciate that. And just for my
lack of really not knowing, percentage-wise--you are going to
have national security along the waters. You are going to have,
obviously, storm response, rescue and recovery. How would you
categorize your three major areas that you guys work in? What
are your top three areas?
Admiral Schultz. Congressman, I would say----
Mr. Weber. And put them in order, if you can.
Admiral Schultz. Yes, sir. I would say, first and foremost,
as a component within the Department of Homeland Security, we
are focused on the security of the Nation, the national
security, you know, more specifically, the homeland security.
We are a globally deployed----
Mr. Weber. Do you include storms in that?
Admiral Schultz. Sir, I would say, from a national security
standpoint, storms clearly factor into that.
I would say, number 2, the economic prosperity of the
Nation. I had mentioned the Marine Transportation System. About
$4.6 trillion of activity occurs in our 361 seaports, our
25,000 miles of coastline, our vast inland river system that
you are familiar with. We enable that, whether it is
navigation, it is partnering with the Army Corps, it is
reopening those waterways.
What I found after the storms of 2017, 2016, States with
ports, the Governors are on the phone with me or my field
commanders in about 24 to 48 hours: When does my port get
opened?
Mr. Weber. I remember.
Admiral Schultz. The product coming into L.A.-L.B., it is
about 3 to 5 days on the shelves of the Wal-Marts and Targets.
So I would say we are a critically key role there.
Support to the Department of Defense, the national security
roles. I mentioned support to five of the six combatant
commanders on any given day. We have coastguardsmen on
Guantanamo Bay supporting the detention camp operations there
on a persistent, everyday basis; in the Middle East, on the
Arabian Gulf, dealing with the Iran threats and the maritime
security operations there. We are in the Arctic. We are
asserting an influence through presence. We are the only real
U.S. Government presence other than the Navy on an episodic
basis up there on any kind of a routine basis.
So it is about projecting sovereign presence.
Mr. Weber. Sure. Well, thank you, Admiral. And we
appreciate what you all do and appreciate you coming in today.
Admiral Schultz. Thank you, Congressman.
Mr. Mast. Thank you, Mr. Weber.
The Chair will now recognize Ms. Plaskett for 5 minutes.
Ms. Plaskett. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
And at this time, I will yield to Mr. Cummings.
Mr. Cummings. Thank you very much. I want to thank the
gentlelady for yielding.
First of all, Admiral, it is good to see you again. And as
you probably are well aware, back in 1961, President John F.
Kennedy was at an inaugural parade, and the Coast Guard was
marching, and he looked out and said, there is not one single
black person. That was 1961. And the Coast Guard seems to have
struggled with regard to diversity.
I just want to know--and, recently, there have been a
number of complaints with regard to discrimination and
disparate treatment with regard to disciplinary action.
As you know, a few years ago, I spoke before the Academy
because we were having problems then, again, maybe 5, 6 years
ago. And I am sure you are well aware, because you did the
invitation, that Congressman Bennie Thompson, Congressman
Courtney, and I are coming up to the Academy, I think it is in
November to again address the cadets.
Just two questions. Tell me, how are we doing with regard
to diversity in the ranks? How are we doing with diversity with
regard to faculty?
And how are we doing with regard--it is not just good
enough to have nice numbers. What are we doing with regard to
climate? As you know, I sit on the Naval Academy board of
visitors, and I have been there for now 12 years. And we have
to work hard at diversity but also at climate.
And the other question would be, I want to know, how we are
doing with regard to women? Because that has been a problem in
the past at the Naval Academy and still is, to some degree.
Admiral Schultz. Congressman, good to see you this morning,
and I welcome the questions.
Sir, I would say, first and foremost, when you talk about
discrimination in the Service, I would like to narrow that
conversation----
Mr. Cummings. Sure.
Admiral Schultz [continuing]. To the Academy. I think that
was your intent, sir.
Mr. Cummings. OK.
Admiral Schultz. I would say, writ large, my guiding
principles, that hit the street on 1 June when I became the
26th Commandant. I spoke very overtly to the Coast Guard's need
to be more representative of the Nation we serve, from the
folks that you see in the Coast Guard, leading the Coast Guard.
We have about 5 percent of our workforce is African American.
That is insufficient. About 14\1/2\, 15 percent of our
workforce is female.
We have pockets where we are doing very well. The United
States Coast Guard Academy Cadet Corps, which numbers almost
1,100, is comprised of 40 percent females. At some point, we
turned the corner, you know, in the last decade-plus where
women are in sufficient numbers there, where they are equally
integrated. If that was a 60/40 split, women to men--I mean, I
am not sure where that goes, but there is a good story there.
Underrepresented minorities at the Academy, we still have
room to go. You know you have my personal commitment, as does
Mr. Thompson and Mr. Courtney, to support the Academy, work
with the Academy. We have and continue to investigate any
incidents of discrimination or racial bias up there and get
after that, take action on that.
We have created a task force that I get briefed on on a
routine basis about what we are doing up there to ensure the
Academy--we talk about diversity, and that is the numbers. And
you are right. Talking about the numbers, we had 18 African
Americans that graduated in the class of 2018, the most ever.
That is a good-news uptick. We had smaller numbers the year
before, rivaling where we were in 1977. That is inexplicable in
2017.
So we are focused on that, but it is really about
inclusivity. We need the men and women of all walks of life to
feel included. They need to be part of the fabric of the
Academy. The numbers need to come up where we get where we were
with the women, in terms of, you know, you look around and
there is folks like you and they are succeeding. We need to
make sure underrepresented minorities are graduating at the
same percentages of their majority counterparts.
In terms of writ large in the Service, sir, we are
underway, intending to wrap up late January or February, with a
women's retention study. We find retention of women trails--and
I don't know the percentage, but there is a trail behind their
male counterparts, to some degree.
We are not waiting until January-February to get after
that. We are trying to tease out the findings. I have created
what I call a Personnel Readiness Task Force and assigned a
full-time handful of people to start understanding these
challenges and start actioning these challenges.
So I think there is a good-news story to say we are focused
on it. I welcome your, Mr. Thompson's, and Mr. Courtney's, you
know, interest. I welcome the chance to bring you to the
Academy to be part of the conversation that says we are serious
about this, we are getting better at this.
The Coast Guard does not benefit--my intent, the Coast
Guard's intent to be more representative of the society we
serve does not fare well when there are articles that say the
Academy isn't a welcoming place to people of all backgrounds.
That just sets us back, sir, and we don't have time for that.
So I would love to get you up there. And I appreciate your
commitment to doing that, where we can say, hey--as you say--
this is our watch, and we are going to better things on our
watch. And I am personally invested in that, Congressman.
Mr. Cummings. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Ms. Plaskett. Mr. Chairman, if I may ask this committee's
indulgence that, giving my time to Mr. Cummings, that on the
next Democratic person, I may be able to ask questions?
Mr. Mast. Absolutely. Without objection.
Ms. Plaskett. Thank you.
Mr. Mast. The Chair will now recognize another former
chairman, Mr. Young, for 5 minutes.
Mr. Young. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Admiral. And congratulations, sir. You are my
10th Commandant. Ten Presidents and ten Speakers. Ten is a good
number. I am trying for, actually, 11. So serve your full 4
years, and I will serve 4 more. And those who don't like it,
they can go do what with it.
Mr. Weber. Is the gentleman including his wife, Anne, in
that last?
Mr. Young. Pardon?
Mr. Weber. Are you including Anne in that list?
Mr. Young. Oh, yeah, of course.
Mr. Weber. I am just checking.
Mr. Young. She is an officer. I am not. I am a private E-1.
This is a strange question, Admiral, and you can't answer
it right now, and then I have two other more serious questions.
Of your $12 billion in your budget--did you say $12 billion?--I
want a report back from you on how many lawyers are you
employing now and the amount of money spent from your budget in
the legal field defending your agency against other agencies
and the private sector.
This is important to me, because a lot of people forget it;
I know, personally, when I first came into this office, you had
very few lawyers. You have a potful right now. And I just want
to know how much money is being spent, because it takes away
from, I think, the mission which we directed you to do.
One of the things that I am interested in, of course, is
the port access route in the Chukchi Sea, the Bering Sea, and
the effect upon Alaska Natives up there, the sea resources.
What assets, mobile or fixed, does the Coast Guard have
available to address the concerns raised by Alaska Natives
regarding the region's being unprepared for an oil spill
response?
Admiral Schultz. Mr. Chairman, thank you for the question.
On the first question on lawyers, we will take that and get
back to you. What I will say--I am speaking to the Judge
Advocate General's Corps today. And what I will say, sir, is
those lawyers absolutely enable our Coast Guard operations. Our
missions have gotten increasingly complex. I am not defending
the numbers, but we will give you the answer on numbers, we
will give you the cost on that, as soon as we can quickly turn
on that.
Regarding----
Mr. Young. Just stop right there. The reason I am asking,
it is just not you.
Admiral Schultz. Yes, sir.
Mr. Young. You have to defend yourself. It is a lot of
other people doing this that take away from the mission. And it
counts against the budget which you are trying to serve. And,
you know, I would like to put a stop to the whole thing,
because, very frankly, most of it is misspent money. I am
prejudiced that way.
Admiral Schultz. I understand your concern, sir.
Mr. Young. Go ahead.
Admiral Schultz. Yes, sir.
Sir, regarding the Chukchi, the Beaufort areas in Alaska,
we have been operating through a framework where we have
brought mobile capabilities up there generally from about 1
June into October here. We have supported what we call Arctic
Shield Operations here this past year with four different
cutters. We have forward-operated two MH-60 Jayhawk helicopters
to Kotzebue. We have worked, I think, upwards of almost 20
rescue cases. We have involved, you know, engaged the local
community on safety on the water, on oil spill response
capability. We continue to do exercises up there across the
range of our portfolios.
You know, there is obviously talk, discussion, I think more
in the Army Corps lane than the Coast Guard lane, about
deepwater-port-type facilities and the future of the Arctic.
And the Coast Guard potentially would derive some benefit from
that. I don't believe we are the lead agency on those
conversations.
But we will continue to press into the Arctic. We are on
the precipice of, you know, potentially a detailed design and
contract award for a Polar Security Cutter. The first time we
are talking about that conversation in more than four decades
here. We are keeping the Polar Star, you know, alive on life
support to bridge that gap.
But, sir, we will probably continue--not ``probably''--we
will, for the foreseeable future, until we get, you know, that
new Polar Security Cutter or multiple new Polar Security
Cutters built, we will operate on this maritime-capable-
platform-type scenario.
Mr. Young. All right. You have a very good reputation in
the Arctic; I want you to know that. Which reminds me, in the
Arctic, I would call it, program, what role are you taking? Is
it the Navy? Is it the Department of Homeland Security? Is it
the Coast Guard? Who is the head dog?
Admiral Schultz. Well, sir, I think you may have seen
Secretary Mattis recently visited the Arctic and talked about,
you know, we need to pay more attention----
Mr. Young. I am aware of that.
Admiral Schultz. Yes, sir.
Mr. Young. But what I am worried about is there is a lot of
talk. If something happens, are you in charge? Is it the
Defense Department? Or is it NOAA? Or who runs the shop?
Admiral Schultz. Sir, if we are talking about some type of
a spill because of increasing activity----
Mr. Young. An oil spill, but not necessarily that. How
about a freeze in? How about navigational aids, all that? Is
that still going to be under your jurisdiction?
Admiral Schultz. I believe that defaults to your United
States Coast Guard, sir. We have a leadership role in the
Arctic.
The Navy is there from a defense standpoint. The SecNav is
interested. We are partnered with the Navy. We are partnered
with the Navy through the integrated program office on this
icebreaker that is helping us drive down schedule, cost,
acquisition risk. We are partnered with NOAA and the Navy here
as we look at, you know, evolving mission requirements.
But things like oil spills, things like rescues, sir, those
are missions that are statutorily in our wheelhouse. And I
believe that, you know, we will be the lead agency on that.
Mr. Young. Do you have--the Department of Homeland Security
and yourselves are working together, or are you looked at as
the lesser of those two agencies?
Admiral Schultz. Specific to the Arctic, sir?
Mr. Young. No, no. The Department of Homeland Security. The
head of the Department of Homeland Security and yourselves, are
there good communications there? Are you able to establish your
priorities, or is it the Department of Homeland Security?
Admiral Schultz. Congressman, I would say we are a very
good fit in the Department of Homeland Security. I was with the
Secretary yesterday. I have great accessibility to her. She
understands our challenges. We are part of the conversation of
pushing our borders out.
I believe that it is a good fit. There is no perfect fit in
the Federal Government for the Coast Guard because of our broad
missions, but I think the right fit is DHS. We have great
support from the Department on this Polar Security Cutter, the
Secretary's personal interest, the staff's interest. I think
things are very positive with our relationship with our parent
department.
Mr. Young. Well, I know, Mr. Chairman, my time is up.
But, Admiral, keep in mind you have a big supporter here.
And if you see someone trying to override your decisions
concerning the seas, let us know. Because sometimes they have a
tendency to say, we are this and we are that and you are little
and you don't mean much. And I am saying, huh-uh. You are the
one that runs the seas. You are the ones that run the
navigational aid, search and rescue, oil spill responsibility,
immigration interdiction, the whole gamut--drug interdiction.
And if you need help, let us know.
We haven't funded you adequately. And one thing I will
condemn Congress--we gave you more responsibility, but we
haven't funded you as we should, and it seems the money goes
someplace else. So keep that in mind.
And thank you for your service. Thanks for being the new
10th Commandant I have served with.
Admiral Schultz. Thank you, Chairman.
Mr. Mast. Thank you, Chairman Young.
It is now my pleasure to recognize Ms. Plaskett again. You
are now recognized for 5 minutes.
Ms. Plaskett. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And thank you, Commandant, for being here.
I wanted to ask if you could provide an update on the
current status of the Coast Guard's operations in the U.S.
Caribbean, specifically if you could speak about the level of
readiness and preparedness during this hurricane season.
I know that you all did an excellent job in the Virgin
Islands and Puerto Rico after Hurricanes Irma and Maria and
again after Florence. But how does the hurricane activities in
other areas affect your preparedness for hurricane season and
utilizing the lessons learned that you have now from the
previous year?
Admiral Schultz. Well, thank you for the question, Ms.
Plaskett.
I would assure you, ma'am, we are prepared for any type of
a major storm, hurricane in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico,
the U.S. Virgin Islands. We have derived lessons learned from
last year's unprecedented hurricane season.
We have fielded some new technologies aboard our Coast
Guard rotary wing, our helicopters. We actually have greater
visibility on where those helicopters are. Once we dispatch
them out to a rescue, a recovery mission, we can see that in
our command centers. We have employed what we call Coast Guard
OneNet, which is an enabling technology platform that allows us
to layer in different NOAA flood-type predictions, other
information. So we pride ourselves on being a learning
organization, and we have pulled some things forward.
With the support of the Congress and the administration, it
is about $300 million going to Puerto Rico to reconstitute our
facilities in San Juan. That is our key operational node to
deal with our air station in Borinquen on the northwest side of
the island. Both of those locations suffered some fairly
serious damage to the operations, to the support functions, our
healthcare center in Borinquen, our child care centers. Over in
St. Thomas, our detachment there, that facility needs a major
overhaul.
But we are standing the watch in those facilities. Our men
and women are there living in less-than-ideal situations. I
have made a commitment to make sure as--you know, it takes time
to--I define a project, contract a project. Some of those
challenges are even exacerbated in more remote locations like
the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands.
So we will make sure our men and women come into an
adequate level of existence today, with the hope that in the
coming years we will better those and get those places more
resilient.
Ms. Plaskett. So do you have a report that has been
prepared on the lessons learned and how you are implementing
what you learned in the past? Is there some sort of document or
something that you could share?
Admiral Schultz. Congresswoman, we have internal, you know,
lessons-learned-type stuff. We could probably roll up something
to your staff to tell you what are those things we pulled
forward from the 2017----
Ms. Plaskett. That would be helpful.
As you may know, I sit on the Committee on Oversight and
Government Reform. And we have requested from--I have
requested, other members have requested, and we had scheduled
hurricane review with FEMA. But I think there are other
agencies, like yourself as well as the Army Corps of Engineers,
that would really be beneficial to be part of a hearing or a
discussion like that. Because I know how much you all worked in
tandem with one another during those. And you all have really
gotten, I think, a good handle on what went well and what
didn't go well during that discussion.
Admiral Schultz. Yes, ma'am.
And on an annual basis, across all those contingency
operations, be it hurricanes, oil spoils, as Chairman Young
spoke about, we do about 700 annual exercises, exercising our
area contingency plans, our security-type plans. I mean, we are
a learning, practicing organization that takes contingency
operations very seriously. So I would be happy to get back to
you on that.
[The information from the U.S. Coast Guard follows:]
The lessons learned related to the 2017 Hurricane Season are
captured in the Coast Guard's ``2017 Hurricane Season Strategic
Lessons Learned'' After Action Report (AAR).\\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\\ This report is categorized as ``For Official Use Only''
and its distribution has been limited to the Subcommittee on Coast
Guard and Maritime Transportation. It is not included in the hearing
record.
Ms. Plaskett. Well, moving outside of necessarily hurricane
preparedness, but I know that in the past we have talked about
the need for additional support, additional funding that I
thought would be very beneficial to the Virgin Islands and
Puerto Rico because of our borders and the high level of drugs
and other activity that are going on there.
Do you feel that you are getting the funding? Will you be
able to ramp that up? Have the cuts taken an effect on that as
well?
Admiral Schultz. Congresswoman, I think there is a good-
news story there. My last job as Atlantic area commander, I
committed to surging, I believe it was somewhere, 12, 13, 14
additional bodies to support security operations out of the
Virgin Islands.
Secondly, one of my early action items was to commit to
standing up a base in San Juan. We have a sector command there.
The sector has a logistics department. That is a complex
operation, from the security threats, the downrange--that area
spans from the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to the U.S. Virgin
Islands, essentially to the north coast of Venezuela. That is a
large area. Captain King there has a full-time job just meeting
his operational requirements.
So we are standing a base up. We will be putting bodies
into that between now and the upcoming assignment season,
summer of 2019. That will be a better-supported location for
Coast Guard frontline operations with more capable mission-
support enablers.
Ms. Plaskett. Thank you.
And one last thing is I really wanted to ask you here in
this hearing and to others that are on the bases, particularly
in St. Thomas and in St. John, that we have a real issue with
regard to vessels and individuals who are mooring and living
near our harbors and are not necessarily permitting. It has
become an environmental issue, as well, for us.
And as you are well aware, we have very scarce resources
with our own local department of natural resources being able
to enforce that. And I know as a mandate, part of Coast Guard's
mandate is, in fact, protecting the environment. And there are
going to be real issues, long term, if we continue to have
individuals living in the harbor without proper sewage and
other facilities on those vessels. You know, you are really
hard-pressed to go swimming in some of those places where once
individuals like myself, when you were younger, were able to.
So I would love to have your support in being able to do
that.
Admiral Schultz. Congresswoman, we will work with our local
commander there, Captain King at the sector, and look what we
can do in our existing authorities, you know, things that fall
under our OPA 1990, the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, authorities
in terms of remediation, environmental risk. We have
authorities there.
There are other places where we would have to work in
partnership with probably the Government of the U.S. Virgin
Islands to figure out what we can do collectively in
partnership on those type of situations.
Ms. Plaskett. Thank you.
I yield back.
Mr. Mast. Thank you again, Ms. Plaskett.
Admiral, there is interest in another round of questioning.
I am going to begin with recognizing myself for another 5
minutes.
And I would like to begin with some questions about
immediate hurricane response in suburban and urban areas, what
Mr. Weber has seen, of course, in Texas, what I just witnessed
in North Carolina, and what we have witnessed in other places
where you are seeing those roads literally completely
underwater, homes underwater, and the Coast Guard having to go
out there and undertake lifesaving capabilities.
In that kind of situation, you are not talking about, you
know, an extremely large vessel that was christened and sent
off into the rough seas. We are talking about small, flat-
bottom vessels, teams of individuals that have to go out there
around downed power lines and downed trees and livestock and so
many other issues that are not necessarily always thought of
when you are thinking about the Coast Guard mission.
And so, as it relates to that, I was wondering if you could
speak just a little bit to do you have the resources, the
assets that you need in place for responding to hurricanes in
situations like that, whether it is these small vessels,
whether it is advancement in your drone program and being able
to go out there and look beyond your line of sight to find
individuals that are in peril.
Can you speak a little bit to how that is advanced and what
the benefits are that you have seen just in these last couple
years with hurricanes as it relates to that and if you see
anything on the horizon that you think you have further need of
in order to provide the adequate response. I would appreciate
that, Admiral.
Admiral Schultz. Congressman, thank you for the question.
And there is a lot in that question.
I would say, at a macro level, in terms of our response, an
area of concern for me is the size of our Coast Guard Reserves.
At one point years back, we had authority to go to 10,000
reservists. We never got above 8,100 reservists. Today, we are
at about 6,300, plus or minus, reservists.
For something like Hurricane Florence, even where we were
in the 2017 hurricane season, we met mission there with that
size Reserve. But if this was a protracted, multimonth
Superstorm Sandy and this scenario went on for many months or a
Deepwater Horizon that went on for many months--in Deepwater
Horizon, we would have had activated all 6,300 Reserves today
and then some, because we got almost up to 7,000-plus back
then.
So I would say one area of concern for me is our Reserve
Force.
In terms of those Flood Punt Teams, the shallow-water
capabilities you rode with the other day, those are low-cost
things. We pull those teams in from all over, our strike
teams--Atlantic Strike Team, Gulf Strike Team, Pacific Strike
Team--maintaining those capabilities. Our Eighth District,
which is the heartland States--23 States in the heartland have
these to deal with high flooding along the Mississippi and the
other major river arteries there. So we can pull those boats
together pretty easily. We can go out and contract for those
boats out of a Bass Pro Shop, I mean, as long as we do that
legally.
I can take deployable Specialized Force folks, our high-end
operators that are assigned to maritime safety security teams,
and I could pull them from all over the country to operate
those boats with a very short ramp-up. So I think we have
bandwidth and capacity and capability there.
And those folks have shown their ability. You know,
Hurricane Harvey was 12,000 people rescued--11,000, almost
12,000 rescued, a lot from the air but equal or more from the
water on those inland capabilities on those Flood Punt Teams.
You saw us fly a small drone. Our R&D center is doing some
innovative things on how do we bring off-the-shelf capabilities
like small drones out to surveil areas to make us more
effective, more impactful.
We are partnered up, and I think what you get with the
Coast Guard that really is part of our special sauce is the
ability to work with the locals, with the States, support FEMA,
support the Governors. And we really speak that jurisdictional,
multilingual language. We can plug in from a town with one
sheriff, and we are a named member of the national intelligence
community, so we work across that.
In the recent response, we were lashed up with the First
Air Force. Admiral Buschman's team was talking to them. Had
this been a different storm, had it been a high-wind, high-
impact, you know, thousands of people in distress from the word
``go,'' DoD had a large amphib offshore, they had the Arlington
offshore, they had, you know, the V-22s onboard to fly in MH-60
helicopters. There was a lot more capability that you didn't
see that was ready for a different type of response. The Air
Force had put, you know, search and rescue crews around the
perimeter area to support the Coast Guard and other agencies.
So I think we are well-positioned, sir. I don't think there
are any large needs. But I will tell you, the one thing is the
Reserve Force. I will come back to this committee and anytime I
am on the Hill and talk about my concerns about getting our
Reserve Force up near the authorized, I think it is 7,100 or
7,000. We need to get closer to that number, sir.
Mr. Mast. I appreciate your response. I would absolutely
welcome your return to speak very specifically about that
Reserve Force. It is vitally important across all branches of
our military. I began my career in the Reserve Force, and so I
am familiar with it on the Army side of the House.
But it is in that that I will now recognize my friend Mr.
Garamendi for another 5 minutes.
Mr. Garamendi. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I would love to get into the GAO report on what we now call
the Polar Security Cutters. I think I am going to like that
name. But I think I am going to let it go. The report came out
very recently. I understand there was discussion about doing a
specific hearing on that, and so I will wait on that.
Just generally, your view of their report? Are we still on
track, taking into account their positions or those
recommendations? Just quickly, are we OK?
Admiral Schultz. Ranking Member Garamendi, I would say I
believe we are OK. We welcome GAO's interests. We welcome GAO's
recommendations.
We have not built a large icebreaker, what we are now
terming a Polar Security Cutter. Before, it was a heavy
icebreaker. Polar Security Cutter, I think, is a little bit
adaptive to the nature of the work. It is a competitive space.
I mentioned SecDef before talking about, you know, cooperating
where we can, compete where we must. I think the Arctic is a
competitive space, sir.
I believe we are in a good place. The technical inputs have
come in here in August. We are looking at those. Cost inputs
will come in November. This is an ongoing dialogue. Because it
is a void there for decades and we haven't built this type of
ship, we need to continually enhance our knowledge.
I mentioned earlier in my comments in one of the questions
about working through this integrated project office with the
Navy. You know, the Navy builds more big ships. This is going
to be a large ship. This is going to be a big acquisition. So
we are deriving benefit from the Navy's interest, from the
SecNav's interest. I think that does drive down cost, schedule,
performance risk.
2023 is aggressive. My predecessor said, you know, we are
behind. I have coined the phrase ``6-3-1,'' a minimum of six
icebreakers, a minimum of three being heavy Polar Security
Cutters, and the ``1'' is one now. We are chasing this space--
--
Mr. Garamendi. Yeah. Just answer my question. You are on
it?
Admiral Schultz. We are on it, sir.
Mr. Garamendi. We will have a hearing in due course here,
and we will get into it in significant detail.
There is another set of ships that we have not built for a
long time, a program currently called inland waterways/Western
Rivers tenders, which we are now going to call Waterway
Commerce Cutters, which is a much better name. We have
appropriated $1.1 million to get started on this program. There
is $5 million in the upcoming fiscal 2019 budget.
Where are we with this? I understand the captain that was
responsible for the program has moved on to other tasks or
retired. It is a priority. It is a priority in that this is the
commerce of the United States in the inland waterways and
beyond. So bring us up to date.
Admiral Schultz. Ranking Member Garamendi, thanks for that
question.
The Waterways Commerce Cutter is going to get after
replacing a fleet of 35, kind of a hodgepodge: small river
tenders, 75-foot pushing barges, 160-foot construction tenders,
a wide range of vessels. We are excited about that.
And one piece you left out was actually the 2018 omnibus
injected an additional $25 million on top of the $1.1 million.
So we got $26.1 million last year. That signals loud and clear
to me that the Congress is interested in this vessel. It ties
to that $4.6 trillion economic engine annually on our
waterways.
So we are on this, sir. We are in the acquire phase of the
acquisition. We are looking and talking to the Army Corps,
other users, about what technologies we can pull forward.
We recognize the desire to do this expediently. I have
ships in that class, or those classes, that are 72 years old.
The Smilax is the queen of the fleet--72 years old. The average
age of that fleet is five-decades-plus, 50-plus years. I
traveled on the Sangamon outside St. Louis in my previous
capacity, and the cook was wearing double hearing protection
and a helmet because there was so much vibration as he made the
crew their meal. So we owe it to our sailors to recapitalize
those vessels as soon as possible.
There is a great-news story here. We are building National
Security Cutters; we are getting ready to award on the OPC here
imminently; Fast Response Cutters; Polar Security Cutters;
Waterways Commerce Cutters.
We have not been in this position before, sir, but your
signal, your interest in this is absolutely clear on me. Our
acquisitions workforce is stretched, but they understand my
expectation is we are going to deliver this ship to the
waterfront as soon as possible.
Mr. Garamendi. Very briefly, I am concerned about the
teamwork that is going to be necessary, the integration of your
best people into the design and then ultimately the
construction of these ships, as well as the advice and counsel
of the folks that are on the river already, not only from the
Coast Guard, but you mentioned the Army Corps of Engineers.
Good.
I would be interested in hearing from you, your design
team, what kind of a group you are going to put together to
manage this as well as to bring into the process the best
thinking of folks that are intimately familiar with the tasks
beyond just the Coast Guard.
Admiral Schultz. Yes, sir, Congressman. I think we have
issued two requests for information, RFIs--I believe one was
back in the early part of this calendar year and one was closer
to the summer--to draw at exactly that, those expertise, those
lessons learned.
This is not a--I am loathe to put a number out, but I think
you are talking a $25 million, plus or minus, ship. This is
not--as we are talking about OPCs and NSCs, I think we have to
be reasonable in our requirements. You know, we have to build a
ship that is purposeful to operate on the inland waterways and
do the type of work it does.
And there is a lot of--the Army Corps has a prototype they
are sailing, I believe out of St. Louis. We are going to derive
the learning from that. And there are other waterway users,
sir, that we absolutely, through our mature acquisitions
process, want to draw the best knowledge out there, and we want
to get after this. And to do that quickly, that is by looking
and drawing from others, from others that are experts in this
field.
Mr. Garamendi. If you could report back on the status.
I yield back my time.
Admiral Schultz. Yes, sir, we will.
Mr. Mast. Thank you, Mr. Garamendi.
I am now going to recognize Mr. Weber for another 5
minutes.
Mr. Weber. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Admiral.
I want you to talk about, if you have the numbers--and if
you don't, that is fine. It looks like we are going to get a
Department of Defense bill across the line, we are hoping,
today and a lot of our--some of our appropriation bills, at
least. But when we don't, when we are--what is the word--
hampered by a CR, a continuing resolution, what does that do to
the Coast Guard?
Admiral Schultz. Congressman, thanks for the question.
I guess I would say, and maybe it is a bit cynical, but we
have been hampered by CRs here almost 40 percent of the time
here in the last eight or nine budget cycles. So we have gotten
adept at that.
What does it do to an agency, an operating agency like the
Coast Guard? It strains that. We have the ability to put our
uniform members, those civilians that conduct frontline
operations, like a search and rescue control or in a rescue
coordination center like Houston that you visited, or a watch
standard, a vessel traffic service, a civilian there that is
supporting frontline operations, we can bring them to work
under a CR or, you know, under a Government shutdown in extreme
cases.
But what we do lose is, you know, if it is a shutdown, we
lose those supporting folks that enable frontline operations.
So we can do the operations, but things like scheduled
maintenance, training, those things fall by the wayside.
CRs preclude us from starting new projects at the beginning
of the year. So, a year ago when we had a CR, we were getting
ready to do a Service Life Extension Program on our MH-60
Jayhawk helicopters. And you saw just how critical those
helicopters were to the Harvey response in Houston, over in
your Beaumont-Port Arthur area. We had a lot of helicopters
doing a lot of important things for Texans there. And, you
know, deferring those projects like that SLEP any amount of
time, that just sets us back a little bit, sir.
So there is a consequence, and we work around it. But,
ideally, having a budget at the start of a fiscal year makes us
the most capable organization we can be.
Mr. Weber. Do you have a dollar amount in difference for
your funding? Or are those numbers you didn't bring with you?
Admiral Schultz. Congressman, I would have to get back to
you in terms of, you know, there is probably some loss,
inefficiencies that come from operating under a CR that I would
probably want to bring back to you here in a follow-on, if I
could.
[The information from the U.S. Coast Guard follows:]
The impacts to frontline operations and acquisition programs
under the current CR through 7 December are considered
manageable. However, if the CR extends further into the fiscal
year, the Coast Guard would likely incur impacts to readiness
and operations. Pay accounts become significantly stressed
during extended CR periods and paying our military workforce
becomes challenging. Pay shortfalls force untenable trade-offs
between paying our workforce and sustaining frontline
operations that keep our Nation safe.
In addition, the CR prevents the Coast Guard from moving out on
new programs due to start in a fiscal year. This often
postpones the start of critical acquisition projects or delays
on-going projects due to limited funding. If a CR continues
into later in the fiscal year, several programs will likely be
impacted, including: POLAR STAR sustainment and the MH-60T
Service Life Extension Project.
With the current FY 2019 CR in place through 7 December, the
Coast Guard has operated under 34 CRs from FY 2010 through FY
2019 and over 40 percent of the time since the start of FY
2010. Just like the other Armed Services, CRs impact the
readiness of forces and assets at a time when security threats
are extraordinarily high. As CRs extend further into the fiscal
year, the more damage they do. CRs have administrative costs
that are wasteful, as well as readiness and operational costs
that are unrecoverable. Over time they erode the foundation of
a strong military and sound financial management practices.
Mr. Weber. OK. Well, I appreciate that. We do appreciate
what you all do with what you have, and appreciate your
service. Thank you, Admiral.
I yield back.
Mr. Mast. Thank you, Mr. Weber.
If there are no further questions, I would thank Admiral
Schultz for his testimony, thank all the Members for their
participation.
Before we close, I would take this opportunity to thank
Captain Noland for his detailed work in writing this review. We
appreciate that, and it is absolutely recognized here.
I would now ask unanimous consent that the record of
today's hearing remain open until such time as our witnesses
have provided answers in writing to any questions that may be
submitted to the Coast Guard and unanimous consent that the
record remain open for 15 days for any additional comments and
information submitted by Members or witnesses to be included in
the record of today's hearing.
Without objection, so ordered.
The subcommittee stands adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 11:09 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
[all]