The House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee this morning is set to markup its version of the fiscal year 2023 homeland security funding bill and is recommending adding $600 million to the Coast Guard’s acquisition account, in part to account for rising inflation.
A draft bill summary released by the panel on Wednesday says the bill includes $2.3 billion for the Coast Guard’s procurement, construction and improvements account, adding $87 million for ships 10 and 11 of the national security cutter (NSC) program and about $115 million for the fast response cutter (FRC) for post-delivery costs of vessels that it previously funded. For the FRC, the funding boost also covers the rising cost of steel and other materials for previously funded cutters.
HII [HII] is building 11 of the 418-foot high-endurance NSCs and Bollinger Shipyards is building 64 of the 154-foot FRCs, which typically patrol closer to the littorals. The Coast Guard’s FY ’23 budget request was for $60 million for the NSC and $16 million for the FRC programs in acquisition funding.
In May, then Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz warned the subcommittee that his service was facing “historic inflation” that is increasing costs for steel, fuel and certain spare parts.
The House appropriators also provided $128.5 million for one HC-130J long-range surveillance aircraft for the Coast Guard, which didn’t request the funds, and $257 million for the polar security cutter (PSC), $90 million more than requested to cover long-lead time materials for the third heavy icebreaker. Lockheed Martin [LMT] builds the C-130 and Halter Marine the PSC.
The proposed bill also fully funds the medium-endurance offshore patrol cutter (OPC) at $650 million and the $125 million request for acquisition funding for a commercial icebreaker. The first four OPCs are being built by Eastern Shipbuilding Group and have already been funded. The Coast Guard is recompeting the 25-ship program beginning with the fifth OPC and the $650 million would fund that ship and long-lead time materials for the sixth vessel.
The bill summary also says the panel would provide nearly $9.8 billion for Coast Guard operations and support, $131.4 million more than requested to help with operational readiness, including deployability of helicopters on cutters, aircraft parts, and communications upgrades.
Overall, the appropriators are recommending $85.7 billion for the Department of Homeland Security, including $60.3 billion within the subcommittee’s funding allocation. DHS requested $56.7 billion in net discretionary budget authority, indicating that the subcommittee would plus this up by nearly $4 billion.
Some of the proposed bill’s other highlights include $50 million for Customs and Border Protection’s non-intrusive inspection (NII) systems acquisition account, which wasn’t requested. The agency is in the front end of spending hundreds of millions of dollars on NII systems to scan more cargo and passenger vehicles entering the U.S. at land ports of entry.
The bill is also proposing to jack up CBP’s acquisition request for border security technology by $100 million and another $20 million for innovative technology, which is on top of $40 million for innovative technology in the agency’s operations and support budget, $15 million more than requested. The bill summary doesn’t specify specific areas of investment for the technology accounts.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency would receive just over $2.9 billion from House appropriators, $417.1 million more than requested. The increase would include $235.4 million more than requested for cybersecurity.
The full House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to mark up the DHS funding bill on June 24. Senate appropriators have yet to schedule a markup of the bill.