“Republican Senators Introduce Bill to Create Service Secretary for the Coast Guard” –USNI

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The Douglas A. Munro Coast Guard Headquarters Building located in southeast Washington is shown from the aerial perspective of a Coast Guard MH-65 helicopter Aug. 21, 2015. A ribbon cutting ceremony was held July 29, 2013, which completed the first stage of the Department of Homeland Security consolidation project on the St. Elizabeths west campus.

US Naval Institute News Service reports,

A trio of Republican senators have introduced a bill to create Secretary of the Coast Guard and Undersecretary positions as the civilian head of the 43,000-member service, USNI News has learned.

According to the draft ‘‘Coast Guard Leadership Modernization Act’’ obtained by USNI News, the new Secretary of the Coast Guard position would report to the Secretary of Homeland Security and takeover many of the interactions the service had with the Pentagon, according to the bill text.

“…create Secretary of the Coast Guard and Undersecretary positions.” Unfortunately I do not think adding two more layers of expensive civilian bureaucracy is going to be helpful.

My observation, suggests that while the Coast Guard has bipartisan support in Congress other agencies in DHS frequently do not. Congress keeps asking what we need, but it appears the Department has held up reports Congress asked for. There has been strong pressure from GAO to keep the budget nearly constant with only small increases. The Department seems to have reacted by more strongly supporting other agencies in the Department assuming the Coast Guard would continue to be supported as it always has been. Evidence of this is the fact that almost every year Congress has added to the administrations’ Coast Guard budget requests.

The Coast Guard needs to be an independent agency. The Coast Guard’s eleven missions do not fit in any existing department. Six of eleven missions including SAR are not considered DHS missions.

There are at least 39 Independent Executive Agencies include NASA, the CIA, GSA, the postal service (UPS), the Social Security Administration. Many have budgets larger than that of the Coast Guard while many have much smaller budgets, so the size is right.

The Coast Guard can and does represent itself well before Congress. We don’t need to have our needs translated to Congress through a third party who has to be schooled on what the Coast Guard does.

3 thoughts on ““Republican Senators Introduce Bill to Create Service Secretary for the Coast Guard” –USNI”

  1. The United States Coast Guard operates under eleven statutory missions divided into homeland security and non-homeland security categories, managed via core operational programs.

    Non-Homeland Security Missions

    • Search and Rescue (SAR): Saving lives and assisting people and property in distress on, under, and over the high seas and navigable waters.
    • Marine Safety: Regulating commercial vessels, licensing mariners, and inspecting shipping to protect commerce.
    • Aids to Navigation (ATON): Maintaining buoys, lighthouses, and electronic navigation systems to ensure safe transit.
    • Marine Environmental Protection: Preventing and responding to oil spills and illegal chemical discharges into waterways.
    • Living Marine Resources: Enforcing domestic fisheries laws and international agreements to protect marine ecosystems.
    • Ice Operations: Breaking ice on domestic rivers, the Great Lakes, and polar regions to facilitate trade and mobility.

    Homeland Security Missions

    • Ports, Waterways, and Coastal Security (PWCS): Protecting U.S. ports, coastal infrastructure, and critical maritime spaces from security threats.
    • Drug Interdiction: Boarding and seizing vessels involved in smuggling illegal narcotics into the United States.
    • Migrant Interdiction: Stopping and rescuing undocumented migrants crossing maritime borders illegally.
    • Defense Readiness: Operating as a branch of the armed forces during war or under national security directives to support the Department of Defense.
    • Other Law Enforcement: Upholding federal laws and supporting joint agency operations across ocean borders.

    The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) engages in international cooperation through key multilateral forums, notably the Arctic Coast Guard Forum, the North Pacific Coast Guard Forum, and the North Atlantic Coast Guard Forum. These partnerships coordinate operations for safety, environmental protection, and security without forming binding traditional military treaties.

    Key Multilateral Forums

    • Arctic Coast Guard Forum (ACGF): Unites coast guard agencies from the U.S., Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, and Sweden to handle search-and-rescue and environmental response in the Arctic.
    • North Pacific Coast Guard Forum (NPCGF): Promotes multilateral cooperation on maritime safety, security, and illegal fishing prevention among Pacific-bordering nations.
    • North Atlantic Coast Guard Forum (NACGF): Facilitates operational coordination, information sharing, and best practices among North Atlantic maritime nations.

    Operational Scope and Goals

    • Search and Rescue (SAR): Standardizes joint responses to marine emergencies across shared polar and regional boundaries.
    • Environmental Protection: Coordinates responses to oil spills, pollution events, and climate-driven maritime challenges.
    • Combating Illegal Fishing: Addresses illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing through combined regional awareness and multilateral frameworks.

    The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) enforces and relies on key international multilateral treaties governing safety, environmental protection, and law enforcement, most notably SOLAS, MARPOL, and the Vienna Convention.

    Core Maritime and Environmental Treaties

    • SOLAS: The International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea sets minimum safety standards for the construction, equipment, and operation of merchant ships.
    • MARPOL: The International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships prevents marine pollution by ships from operational or accidental causes.
    • STCW: The Standards of Training, Certification and Watch keeping for Seafarers establishes basic qualification requirements for masters, officers, and watch personnel on seagoing vessels.

    Security and Counter-Narcotics Agreements

    • 1988 Vienna Convention: The UN Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances provides the legal framework for international cooperation and boarding procedures to stop drug smuggling at sea.
    • Regional Forums: Multilateral operational frameworks like the Arctic Coast Guard Forum and North Pacific Coast Guard Forum facilitate joint safety, fisheries protection, and commerce security.

    Since the United States Coast Guard has global responsibilities an individual and cognizant Secretary for them as a separate department would be appropriate.

    Reply ↓

    • The Coast Guard as a separate Department would probably be an improvement but I don’t think we need that much regular access to the President.

      Bottom line, being part of DHS has not helped the CG. When we were in Treasury, we used to say, in our obscurity is our security. We were generally ignored and did our job quietly, professionally and without competition from other agencies in Treasury. In DHS we are relatively large and in competition with other agencies that are more exclusively directed toward DHS missions.

      I think we need to be able to present our case directly without being filtered through the DHS.

      Reply ↓

      • If not the . . . one of the most effective/efficient services is the USCG. They stretch $$$ like no one else. They should have their own budget and advocate. Their mission only grows from here out.

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