Coast Guard Transition Raises Concerns About Spreading Too Thin
WASHINGTON—At a hearing this week, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) addressed concerns that the United States Coast Guard’s new focus—homeland security–will make it far more difficult for the agency to fulfill its traditional roles.
The Coast Guard’s unique duties, which include search and rescue missions, managing fisheries and maritime activities, and environmental protection, are of special importance to the 3,513 miles of coastline shared by New Hampshire and Maine. According to experts, these functions are not covered by any other federal agency.
On March 1, the Coast Guard will move to the new Department of Homeland Security with the additional mission of working to increase the safety of ports and coastal areas from possible terrorist attacks and other dangers. Speaking Wednesday before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee’s Oceans, Atmosphere and Fisheries Subcommittee, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thomas Collins assured the lawmakers that the Coast Guard’s traditional duties would remain intact, even though the coming transition would require several procedural changes.
“The Homeland Security Act of 2002 allows the Coast Guard to remain a military, maritime and multi-mission service,” Collins told the subcommittee, which Snowe chairs.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, there has been a steady increase in security for ports and coastal areas.
Collins promised that the Coast Guard would continue to maintain “operational excellence” because of increasing budget support over the last two years. The Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002, co-sponsored by Snowe, significantly bolstered Coast Guard funding to augment local seaport security.
“The fact is, the threats we faced on September 11 have only increased in magnitude,” Snowe said at the hearing. “Given that only one or two percent of the six million shipping containers from overseas are inspected each year – and 95 percent of trade from outside North America comes to us through our 361 commercial seaports – can there really be any question that securing our ports is a national imperative?”
Local seaports are at the heart of the coastal industry in Maine and New Hampshire, and their seaside locations make them especially vulnerable. Snowe has called for the development of new technology to reduce that vulnerability risk.
But there is an inherent danger in giving the Coast Guard additional responsibilities, and many experts are concerned that the agency will spread itself too thin and that local, traditional duties, such as search and rescue, environmental protection and fishery management, will suffer.
“The primary threat is that their enforcement activities associated with environmental laws will be reduced,” said Jan Pendlebury, New Hampshire director of the National Environmental Trust. “In the months following September 11 there was much less enforcement of commercial fishing activities. Fishermen were quoted at the time saying that everyone knew there was no enforcement and that it was a free-for-all on the water. This problem could increase and continue if the Coast Guard is overburdened.”
According to Snowe, however, there’s no cause for alarm. To ease tensions over the Coast Guard’s new responsibilities, Snowe and Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) added a provision to last year’s Homeland Security Act under which the Coast Guard maintains its status as a separate institution. Preserving the Coast Guard’s existing infrastructure, Snowe said, “is a top priority.”
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), chair of the Governmental Affairs Committee, which oversees the Department of Homeland Security, said that she is concerned about spreading the Coast Guard too thin and that she would work to maintain full funding for traditional Coast Guard functions.
“In Maine alone, the Coast Guard is called on for nearly 300 search and rescue missions per year,” Collins said in a statement after the Oceans Subcommittee hearing. “It is imperative that someone be out there in case of emergency, whether people are in the water to earn a living or for recreation.”
At the hearing, JayEtta Hecker, director of the General Accounting Office’s physical infrastructure team, presented the findings of the team’s study of the Coast Guard’s transition to the new department. She stressed that cooperation was most critical to the success of the transition.
“In the short term, there are numerous, complicated and significant challenges that need to be resolved, and they’ll take time and effort,” Hecker said at the hearing, adding that several “strategic initiatives” are underway to make the transition as smooth as possible.
The creation of the Department of Homeland Security will be the largest reorganization of the federal government in more than 50 years. In all, 22 federal agencies and programs, including the Coast Guard, will be combined into one agency whose prime mission will be to protect the United States from terrorist attacks.
Published in Foster’s Daily Democrat, in New Hampshire.
