04.18.07

At Hearing, Cantwell Presses Coast Guard on Funding for Seattle-Based Icebreaker Fleet

Administration's repeated refusal to ensure Coast Guard funding for vital icebreakers leaves agency without the resources it needs to complete mission

WASHINGTON, DC - Wednesday, at a hearing on the Coast Guard budget for 2008, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) questioned Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen on funding for the Seattle-based fleet of Coast Guard polar icebreakers. In recent years, the administration has given the money needed to run these ships to the National Science Foundation (NSF)—the primary user of the icebreakers. The Coast Guard must still pay to maintain its three icebreakers, but must do so in an uncertain funding environment where NSF controls the money. This inefficient system can leave the Coast Guard without the funding it needs, a problem Cantwell is working to correct.

"These icebreakers are essential to carrying out research missions near the poles and as Coast Guard ships, we also depend on them to respond to vessels in distress," said Cantwell. "We shouldn't keep placing the Coast Guard at another agency's mercy. Shortchanging the Coast Guard just means that in the end, we're forcing them to pick and choose which indispensable operations they fund, and which ones they cut back."

 In recent years NSF has used portions of its polar icebreaker funding to contract with Russia and Sweden instead of with the Coast Guard, and has neglected long-term repair needs on the Seattle-based ships. These arrangements with other countries have proven ineffective, with the Russian icebreaker Krasin itself becoming stuck in ice last year, requiring Coast Guard icebreakers to free it.

At the hearing Wednesday, Commandant Allen called the current funding process "dysfunctional," and cited the specific problem of NSF not reimbursing the Coast Guard for rescue operations preformed during science-based missions. The three icebreakers require an annual operating budget of $57 million—a sum currently allocated to NSF with no guarantee that the Coast Guard will ever receive the funds. In response to Cantwell's questions, Allen said: "We have to have a way forward with the polar breakers. I'm in total agreement with you."

While NSF is supposed to reimburse the Coast Guard for maintenance and operating expenses associated with the polar icebreaker fleet, they have not signed an agreement for 2007 codifying this arrangement, leaving open the possibility that NSF might not reimburse the Coast Guard for the full price of operating the polar fleet.

The Coast Guard's icebreaker fleet consists of three vessels: the Polar Star, the Polar Sea, and the Healy. Together, the three ships support approximately 300 Puget Sound jobs. A 2006 report by the National Academy of Sciences concluded that it is in the best interest of the United States to maintain its polar icebreaking capabilities, and that these operations should be funded by the Coast Guard.

In last year's Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2006, Cantwell included a provision requiring the Coast Guard to submit a plan to Congress for the operation and maintenance of the polar icebreakers. The Coast Guard, however, failed to present a viable plan, a point raised by Cantwell at Wednesday's hearing.

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