State of Coast Guard shore side Infrastructure FY2023
Kristi Noem, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, wants to slash the Coast Guard’s shore infrastructure budget by 90% … Noem has proposed $21 million for fiscal 2026, which begins Oct. 1, to repair and maintain the Coast Guard’s shore infrastructure — a fraction of the more than $400 million that the service received in 2024. But a federal watchdog reported in March that the Coast Guard would need at least $7 billion to fix its shore infrastructure, which includes family housing and barracks, boat stations, piers, lighthouses, firing ranges, airfields, and Coast Guard shipyards.
Read more at: https://www.stripes.com/branches/coast_guard/2025-06-05/coast-guard-budget-noem-18023552.html
Source – Stars and Stripes
You can see the GAO report referenced in the article here.
Thanks to MikeB for bringing this to my attention.
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 
I have to think this is all part of starving law enforcement and parts of defense that has not already been compromised. I’ll leave it at that.
The DHS Secretary had better go tour and review those sites before she takes their money away. We have crumbling buildings, piers falling apart, and USCG quarters for families living in things she would NEVER permit her children to live in. This infrastructure budget has been in the making for over a Decade! Where does anyone get off just canceling it?
These USCG personnel have to perform with confidence with EVERYONE ELSE is in DIRE STRAITS . . . and their budget is yanked out from under them? SHAMEFUL is what that is!
Don’t forget the head of DHS wants the CG to buy two fancy new corporate jets for her to use because the ones the CG is not fancy enough and new enough for her.
The CG has been underfunded for many years but yet it is ask to do more every year. At some point something will break.
I have no problem if the DHS was bye a new jet for her out of the their budget. But not out of the Coast Guard budget. At over 50 million dollars, the Coast Guard could get a least 5 new H-60 helicopters. That’s is more important.
The news I saw said out of the CG budget, and she also gets to fly around in a C-130 so she can play Coastie. We are truly doomed.
the Stars and Stripes article has some numbers I don’t understand.
“Many of the Coast Guard’s shore-based assets are beyond their expected service life and need revitalization or replacement. More than 230 of the service’s airfields need new lighting or repaving. About 30 of the Coast Guard shipyards need of a total of $451 million in repairs, and 1,046 piers need additional work. Nearly 840 dining facilities and upward of 900 family housing units also need repairs or replacing.”
Read more at: https://www.stripes.com/branches/coast_guard/2025-06-05/coast-guard-budget-noem-18023552.html
Source – Stars and Stripes
@Pat Flynn, I was wondering about that too. I presume they pulled these out of the GAO report, but I did not try to chase down where they came from.
I suspect the reallocation of funding is to bolster the notional defenses of the Southern US-Mexico Land Border from a notional threat! But, hey that’s just my cynical read on what’s happening in WDC right now…
Unfortunately the country is in dire straits financially and that means cuts have to be made everywhere. We cannot even make the interest payments on the national debt without borrowing the money. Of course nobody wants to see their program cut.
The country is not in dire financial straits.
The US has been selling bonds for decades and the national debt as a percentage of GDP has grown but that is because we have chosen to cut taxes, not because the economy is weak.
one wee little problem! As of 1 May 2025, US Savings Bonds regulations have changed from redeemable value from 20-years to after 1 May 2025 to 30-years! Which makes investing in US Savings Bonds a less attractive investment…
Those are not the bonds I was talking about.
The US Department of the Treasury stop issuing War Bond in May 1980, and the closest to them the Special E bond still doesn’t mature until after 30-years from purchase under the new US Treasury 1 May 2025 start date…
The national debt is not in 30 year savings bonds.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/treasurybond.asp
A Primer on Treasury Bonds.