Roybal-Allard statement on U.S. Coast Guard budget request
Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-40), the Ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, today delivered the following opening statement at a Subcommittee hearing on the U.S. Coast Guard budget request for Fiscal Year 2016. The hearing's witness was Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Paul F. Zukunft.
"Admiral, welcome to your first appearance before the Subcommittee as the Commandant of the Coast Guard. This morning, we will discuss the Coast Guard's budget request for Fiscal Year 2016, which totals $8.1 billion in discretionary funding – a cut of $238 million, or 2.8 percent, from the current year appropriation.
"As I'm sure you are aware, we have been frustrated in recent years by the lack of a timely delivery of the Coast Guard's five-year Capital Investment Plan, which by law is required to be submitted concurrently with the budget request. My understanding is that part of the problem is a bureaucratic one, under which the process for OMB review of the CIP is misaligned with the annual budget submission and the Subcommittee's annual hearing schedule. But it also seems to reflect a continuing mismatch of expectations between the Coast Guard and the Administration regarding the future of the Coast Guard fleet.
"Acquisition of air and surface assets is usually a main focus of our annual oversight hearing for the Coast Guard, so I hope the Administration can better align its review of the CIP with the timely submission of the information we need to provide oversight; as I know you can appreciate, we cannot effectively budget for or provide oversight of multi-year capital investments without information about future year plans. For this year, I look forward to getting the updated CIP as soon as possible.
"The FY16 request for Acquisition, Construction, and Improvements is just slightly more than $1 billion – a cut of $208 million, or 17 percent, below the FY15 level. Compared to FY10, the proposed FY16 funding for ACI represents a 34 percent reduction. Your predecessor, Admiral Papp, thought properly recapitalizing the Coast Guard fleet would require at least $1.5 billion per year. So there appears to be a continuing disconnect between the needs of the Coast Guard and the budget requests the Administration submits. It will be particularly important this morning to get a better sense of how big that disconnect is.
"We will also want to know whether the other components of the request adequately support your missions, including the number of military personnel and funding for operations and maintenance.
"Thank you again for joining us this morning, and I look forward to our discussion."