The House Appropriations Committee (HAC) this morning will markup its version of the FY ’18 Homeland Security Appropriations Bill, which proposes to rescind $95 million appropriated in FY ’17 for a 10th National Security Cutter (NSC), which wasn’t requested by the Coast Guard and isn’t a requirement, according to report language accompanying the bill.

The $95 million contained in the FY ’17 budget for the NSC is for prime contractor Huntington Ingalls Industries [HII] to purchase long-lead materials for the high-endurance cutter. 

The Coast Guard’s program of record is for eight NSCs, but Senate appropriators were successful in getting a ninth vessel funded and providing the long-lead funding for the 10th in previous negotiations with their House counterparts, who wanted to stick to the requirement. Senate appropriators have not scheduled a markup of their version of the FY ’18 DHS spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security.

The pending House appropriation for the NSC program in FY ’18 is $54 million.

The HAC Homeland Security Subcommittee marked up the DHS bill last week, recommending $44.3 billion overall for the department. The report accompanying the bill was released on Monday.

The HAC bill, as it stands, would also fund the $19 million requested by the Trump administration for a new heavy polar icebreaker for the Coast Guard. That amount is intended to keep the program on track for a production award in 2019.

The Coast Guard’s mission need is for three new heavy and three new medium icebreakers. The service has estimated each heavy icebreaker would cost about $1 billion each but the National Academies of Science last week issued a report suggesting that the lowest cost strategy for the Coast Guard would be to buy four heavy icebreakers, which would cost $791 million on average, and not acquire any medium icebreakers.

The HAC report highlights the committee’s concern “with the increasing Russian military presence in the Arctic region,” adding that “it is essential that the United States maintain a robust capability to operate in the region to ensure its national security and economic interests are protected, and to counter Russian aggression.”

The report also suggests that there may be a gap between when the Coast Guard’s current heavy and medium polar icebreakers reach the end of their service life and when new icebreakers come on line. The report wants the service to examine the possibility of using existing vessels that can operate the Arctic to see if they can meet their requirements as part of short-term procurement to prevent a capability gap.

The panel also “encourages” DHS to work with the Defense Department “on a strategy for the future procurement of additional heavy icebreakers.”

With the United States Navy’s interest in building out its fleet to 355 vessels, the Coast Guard is concerned that there isn’t any appetite in the Navy to help fund icebreakers that the Coast Guard would operate. The Coast Guard earlier this year expressed interest in having all icebreaker procurement funding within its acquisition account.