Officials Addressing Concerns as Coast Guard Transitions to Homeland Security
WASHINGTON—Amid persistent worries that the U.S. Coast Guard’s new Homeland Security responsibilities will spread its resources too thin, officials say that steps have been taken to make the transition as smooth as possible and that the Coast Guard will still be able to effectively perform its traditional duties.
The Coast Guard is among 22 federal agencies and programs combining under the Homeland Security Act of 2002, designed to quell the threat of terrorism against the United States. The Coast Guard officially became part of the new Department of Homeland Security this week.
Speaking earlier this week as he took over leadership of the Coast Guard from U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge reiterated the basic ideas behind the creation of the department,and the Coast Guard’s significant role in protecting coastal and maritime interests from the threat of terrorism.
But there are continuing concerns about how the transition will affect the Coast Guard’s regulation of fisheries and other coastal businesses, which are of vital importance to both New Hampshire and Maine.
“With the added responsibility under Homeland Security, it really causes a lot of concern for the fisheries and fishing boats on the coast,” Jan Pendlebury, New Hampshire director of the National Environmental Trust, said in an interview. “These new responsibilities are major ones, and whether or not they are up to the challenge, it puts a lot of stress on them. They’re going to have to prioritize, and unfortunately I think that fisheries are going to be put at the bottom of the list.”
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) spearheaded a 10-7 vote in the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee last year to add provisions that would ensure that there would be no reductions in funding or personnel for the Coast Guard’s traditional duties.
“It’s very important to be vigilant in ensuring that the Coast Guard maintain its essential mission,” Collins said in a statement last year. She pointed out that before Sept. 11, 2001, port security accounted for only 2 percent of the Coast Guard’s resources and that immediately following the terrorist attacks, the Coast Guard deployed 59 percent of its resources to increase port safety and mount security missions. She said that she would continue a push to maintain the “vital mission of the Coast Guard.”
“This is definitely something that she will keep a close eye on,” Collins’ press secretary, Megan Sowards, said in an interview.
Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), who chairs the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee’s Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere and Fisheries, said lawmakers are doing everything they can to ensure that the effectiveness of the Coast Guard’s traditional duties is preserved.
“With substantial new funding, both this year and next, the Coast Guard should have the resources it needs to ramp up its personnel and equipment and remain focused on its traditional missions even while it serves its new function,” said Dave Lackey, Snowe’s director of communications, in an interview.
Many state agencies across the nation also are lending an important hand as the Coast Guard makes its transition, including Maine’s Marine Resources Department, a law enforcement branch that focuses strictly on saltwater marine activity. Maine is one of the few states that has this type of specified department, given the immense importance of maritime business and recreation to the state and region.
“The Coast Guard has always been our closest partner; we participate with them on a daily basis,” said Major John Fetterman of the Marine Resources Department. “We learned some lessons after [Sept. 11], and we got thrust into a role that was unfamiliar to us, performing a broad range of maritime security missions. But we work with the Coast Guard, and our role is to backfill for them. We assist in all of their duties as more of their resources get redirected to national security. It’s a close, extremely tight relationship and I think you’ll find it’s much the same with the Coast Guard and other organizations across the United States.”
Published in Foster’s Daily Democrat, in New Hampshire.
