A bill to reauthorize the Coast Guard for two years was introduced in the House last Thursday and would allow for nearly $2 billion to be spent on acquisition in both fiscal years 2018 and 2019.
A similar bill was marked up last Thursday by the Senate Commerce Committee. The authorization bill pending in the Senate would provide for just under $2 billion in acquisition funding in FY ’18 and just over $2 billion in FY ’19.
The bill awaiting markup in the House would allow just over $1.9 billion in spending on acquisition projects in each of the two years. The Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2017 (H.R. 2518) was introduced by Reps. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure’s Subcommittee on the Coast Guard, John Garamendi (D-Calif.), the ranking member on the subcommittee, Bud Shuster (R-Pa.), chairman of the full committee, and Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), ranking member of the committee.
Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Paul Zukunft wants Congress to appropriate at least $2 billion annually for the acquisition account so that it can sustain the schedule of its ongoing recapitalization of surface, air and shore assets. He told a House Appropriations panel last Wednesday that the service also needs to begin replacing its fleet of 35 boats that patrol the nation’s inland waterways, saying the cost per craft will be about $25 million.
The bill also would require the Department of Homeland Security to establish a land-based unmanned aircraft system (UAS) program that is controlled by the Coast Guard. Customs and Border Protection currently operates the only land-based UAS within DHS, a fleet of nine General Atomics-build Predator systems. Two of the Predators are fitted with sensors to allow for maritime operations.
Language in the UAS section of the bill, though, puts limitations on the Coast Guard’s authorities to acquire large UAS. It says that in any fiscal year that funds are appropriated for the design or construction of the Offshore Patrol Cutter, which is the service’s top acquisition priority, the Coast Guard “may not award a contract for design of an unmanned aircraft system.”
However, the bill allows the Coast Guard to acquire UAS if it is already part of a “program of record, procured by, or used by, the Department of Defense or the Department of Homeland Security,” or if it can be acquired “at less cost through independent contract action.”
The language doesn’t apply to small UAS or previously funded systems.
The Coast Guard is interested in having land-based UAS that have long ranges and high endurance capabilities to monitor the transit zones in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific Ocean to detect illegal drug activity.
The House bill also provides authorities for efficient contracting options for major acquisition programs, including block buy contracts, incremental funding, and combined purchases, which are also called economic order quantity purchases. The bill marked up in the Senate authorizes a multi-year contract for the service’s 10th, 11th, and 12th National Security Cutters (NSC).
The Coast Guard has contracted for nine NSCs and Congress has provided long-lead funding for a 10th, but there are no guarantees that funding for construction of these ships will be appropriated. The Coast Guard’s original program of record for the NSC was eight vessels and Senate appropriators have led the charge to continue beyond that number.
Regarding the NSC, the House bill prohibits the Coast Guard from certifying that its eighth NSC is Ready for Operations until the commandant provides the House and Senate new standards for tracking the actual days major cutters are deployed operationally.