The Coast Guard Has Billions in Overdue Maintenance, and Lawmakers Are Concerned – By Dorothy Mills-Gregg (Military.com) / March 12 2020
After a “dead on arrival” Coast Guard budget request last year, the president’s proposed fiscal 2021 budget for the service had a better reception from lawmakers Tuesday.
However, House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security Chairwoman Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-California, told Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz that she is concerned the request does not include enough to tackle the service’s maintenance backlog.
“It really concerns me that, despite the nearly $2 billion backlog of crumbling shore infrastructure, which you just described, 40% of which is over — my understanding — 50 years or older, that the president’s budget request proposes deep cuts to last year’s enacted level for all the lines that fund infrastructure,” she said.
Congress appropriated about $12.2 billion for the Coast Guard in fiscal 2020, allocating roughly $1.8 billion for the service’s procurement, construction and improvement fund. While next year’s overall budget request is for a similar amount, it decreases this capital fund by about $135 million.
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