US Capital West Side, by Martin Falbisoner

U.S. Naval Institute News Service reports,

The Coast Guard could see $14.6 billion in new cutters as part of a massive supplemental that could almost double the service’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget, according to the text of the reconciliation bill reviewed by USNI News.

Included in the Republican-led funding proposal is money for almost 30 new cutters ranging in size from the 154-foot Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutter to the 460-foot Polar Security Cutter, according to a source familiar with the proposed buy.

Those include:

• Three or more Arctic Security Cutters and an unspecified number of Great Lakes icebreakers for $5.03 billion.
• Two Polar Security Cutters and advanced procurement for $4.3 billion.
• Eight Heritage-class Offshore Patrol Cutters for $4.3 billion.
• Up to 15 Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutters for $1 billion.

It also includes a lot more, but first, recognize that this is not a single fiscal year appropriation. In fact it is not an appropriation at all. You can read the actual text of the bill here.

“For the purpose of the acquisition, sustainment, improvement, and operation of United States Coast Guard assets, in addition to amounts otherwise made available, there is appropriated to the Commandant of the Coast Guard for fiscal year 2025, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to remain available until September 30, 2029…”

That is a conditional statement.

If the money is available, you can spend it on these things. (I think the idea may have been that cancelling programs would save huge amounts of money in the FY2025 budget, that could be redirected. It now appears the initial estimates were wildly optimistic.)

The bill provides a long list of things money could be spent on, totaling $14.6B according to the USNI report. It does not directly fund them. It allows any FY2025 money not otherwise committed, to be moved into a pool the Coast Guard can draw on for the next four years.

The Coast Guard is not the only agency that can draw on “any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated,” This bill “appropriates” $15B for the FAA and about $257M to the Kennedy center under the same conditions. There is also nearly identical wording in the Defense Reconciliation bill but for much larger sums.

The bill is only 22 short double spaced pages. Only the first seven pages deal with Coast Guard acquisitions. (Nowhere in the bill is there a specific number of cutters as listed in the USNI article.)

Pages 8-11 deal with activation of CG Selected Reserve personnel.

On pages 11 and 12 there is imposition of vessel tonnage duties.

Pages 12-18 imposition of a Federal registration fee on motor vehicles.

Pages 18-20 would cancel some existing programs.

Pages 20-21 deals with the FAA.

This is more like an authorization than an appropriation.

While I doubt the Coast Guard will ever see $14.6B in redirected FY2025 funds, perhaps this will influence the budget process in future years. The priorities expressed here may allow the Coast Guard the option of redirecting money to new programs if we continue to have continuing resolutions rather than actual budgets.