The U.S. Coast Guard’s headquarters campus in Washington, D.C.
Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) has announced introduction of a bill to establish a Secretary of the Coast Guard, who would in turn report to the Secretary of Homeland Security. This would parallel the Secretary of the Navy’s relationship with the Secretary of Defense, but then the DOD budget is five times that of DHS, and, in fact, the Navy Department budget is 50% larger than the entire DHS budget.
The Maritime-Executive has a report on this, written by K. Denise Rucker Krepp that attributes this move to the Fouled Anchor controversy which investigated alledged coverup of mishandling of allegations of racism, hazing, discrimination, sexual harassment, sexual assault, and rape.
My own feeling has always been that when within a local jurisdictions, violations of local laws, particularly sexual assault and rape, should be handled by local law enforcement.
The caption on the photo above, as it appears in the Maritime-Executive report states, “Unlike the other armed forces, the service has no civilian leader.” This is not really true. The Coast Guard is under the Secretary of Homeland Security. Similarly there is no “Secretary of the Marine Corps,” a much larger military service than the Coast Guard, with a budget almost four times as large, but they do fall under the Secretary of the Navy and do in fact have civilian leadership.
Creating a Secretary of the Coast Guard would not just add one civilian political appointee, he would need a civilian staff. This would be a whole new level of bureaucracy between DHS and the Coast Guard, and we know how well “Gossip Games” go. Meanwhile there is nothing that stops the Secretary DHS from having part of his staff specialize in oversight of the Coast Guard.
I will take this opportunity to state, I think the Coast Guard should be an independent agency, like NASA or the EPA. The Federal Government has lots of them. The Coast Guard has no shortage of oversight from Congress and the Coast Guard’s eleven missions don’t really fit neatly in any existing department. It would cut out an entire level of bureaucracy.
It might be assumed that a Secretary of the Coast Guard would support the service, but could they really do a better job of representing the service or perhaps they would have a different agenda. This might even lead to civilianizing or politicizing the service.
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 
I think the USCG should be more like the USMC and have the same budget as the USMC
I can certainly see how this could add another layer of unwelcome bureaucracy to the Coast Guard within DHS, especially given the nature of political appointees. However, if the Secretary is someone deeply knowledgeable and passionate about the work of the Coast Guard, he/she could be a valuable advocate within DHS and on Capitol Hill.
The CG has traditionally had great bipartisan support, but sometimes their needs and profile can get overlooked (i.e., “do more with less”). Depending on the appointee, a Secretary could help lift their cause in various ways without bogging the service down. Could go either way I think, just depends on the person and structure of their office.
The Maritime Executive article was written by someone who probably had a hand in this proposal and was generally hostile to the Coast Guard and it seemed to the military in general. I don’t think anything good would come of it.
Currently I think DHS may be cutting back on CG funding requests. We can’t assume the Department will pass through CG requests without cuts.
Why else would the latest Force Mix study not be made public.
Personally I think it’s time that the Coast Guard become a permanent member of the DOD under the Navy and the Secretary of the Navy just as the Marine Corps is.
@Alan, I believe this has been proposed before, and usually neither USCG nor Navy has been particularly enthusiastic about it.
I think independent would be good, or maybe back to Treasury?
Something that I think should be considered is to remove the ATON mission from the Coast Guard and give it to the Army Corps of Engineers. That would put it all under one roof as the ACE is responsible for maintaining and building the waterways.
That would let the USCG focus on primary missions.
I could see that for the fixed aids and for the inland tender fleet, but the WLB particularly do more than just AtoN. Increasingly they are multimillion assets and I think that the next generation should be even more generally capable, perhaps the WLMs as well.
Really I feel like there should be a closer organizational relationship between the Maritime Transportation portion of Corps of Engineers and the Coast Guard. Maybe they should join the Coast Guard or at least be in the same Department. The Coast Guard could be an independent agency within DOD.
Perhaps the Department of Homeland Security should have either an undersecretary or an assistant secretary specifically for the Coast Guard.
That would make more sense.