The chairman and ranking member on the House panel that provides funding for the Department of Homeland Security both complained yesterday of proposed cuts to Coast Guard’s acquisition budget for FY ’14 that would reduce funding for ships and aircraft by about 40 percent from FY ’13.
The budget request for DHS “sort of defies logic,” Rep. John Carter (R-Texas), chairman of the House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee, said at the outset of a hearing to examine the department’s FY ’14 budget request. Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), chairman of the full Appropriations Committee, said the budget proposal would “decimate” operations of the Coast Guard and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Carter criticized the request for the ongoing DHS headquarters consolidation as well as an increase in the department’s request for research, which is due to plans to complete construction of a new biological defense facility. He called “shameful” proposals to reduce the Coast Guard’s acquisition budget, 826 of the Coast Guard’s military billets, 1,000 ICE personnel (ICE) and 2,200 detention beds managed by ICE for holding apprehended illegal aliens.
Rep. David Price (D-N.C.), the ranking member on the subcommittee, is unhappy with a $347 million reduction to the request for national preparedness grants and the “significant reduction” to Coast Guard personnel and acquisition “that raises serious questions about future Coast Guard capabilities [and] recapitalization efforts.”
Price believes that the 40 percent cut to Coast Guard acquisition, from $1.5 billion in FY ’13 to $951 million in FY ’14, may be being paid for by a request to build the new National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) in Kansas as a replacement for the current Plum Island Animal Disease Center in New York. DHS is seeking $857.8 million for the NBAF, which is contained within the request for the department’s Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate.
The NBAF construction plans are the reason for a 125 percent increase in S&T’s budget request, but Price suggested exploring options for phasing in construction of the bio-containment facility that will study foreign, emerging and zoonotic diseases that threaten animal agriculture and public health in the United States. A phased in approach could free up funding for the Coast Guard or other S&T priorities, he said.
DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano responded to the lawmakers that the Coast Guard’s acquisition budget fully funds construction of the seventh National Security Cutter (NSC), the top recapitalization priority of Commandant Adm. Robert Papp. Last year, DHS attempted to halt the NSC program at six ships but Congress provided long-lead funding for the seventh vessel in the continuing budget resolution for FY ’13. The Coast Guard’s ultimate requirement is for eight NSCs.
Napolitano also said that the proposed cuts in Coast Guard personnel are in administrative positions or unfilled billets. She added that the NSC vessels will require less manpower to operate than the legacy fleet of 12 high-endurance cutters that are being replaced.
Leading up to the sequester, which went into effect on March 1 and is expected to cut more than $3 billion in DHS spending for the rest of FY ’13, department officials warned that it would result in employee furloughs, which in turn would result in increased wait times at aviation security checkpoints and create gaps in border security. So far, DHS has been able to avoid the furloughs as it works through items affecting the department in the continuing budget resolution, Napolitano said. She added that the department is working to reduce the potential furloughs through reprogramming requests that will be sent to Congress.