Cantwell Pushes to Ensure Future for Seattle-Based Fleet of Coast Guard icebreakers
Ships Support Puget Sound Jobs, Vital to U.S. Scientific Missions
WASHINGTON , D.C. –U.S. Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) this week called for full funding of the government's Seattle-based fleet of polar icebreakers. Snowe and Cantwell lead the Senate Commerce Committee's Fisheries and Coast Guard panel.
The president's budget for 2006 requested only $47.5 million for the icebreaker program, despite press reports that indicated operations and maintenance costs require around $75 million.
In a letter, the senators also urged leaders of the Homeland Security Appropriations Committee to reject a proposal included in the Administration's Fiscal Year 2006 budget that would shift funding for the icebreaker fleet from the Coast Guard to the National Science Foundation.
"We are very concerned that this proposal will create funding uncertainty that could eventually undermine the continuation of these critical assets, jeopardizing the ability of the United States to maintain a presence in the polar regions," the senators wrote. "Maintaining these Coast Guard assets is vitally important for keeping the United States operationally independent and secure in polar waters."
The Coast Guard's icebreaker fleet consists of three vessels—the POLAR STAR, the POLAR SEA and the HEALY. These ships undergo an annual three-month repair period at Seattle's Todd Shipyards, which has maintained these vessels since 1976. In fact, the Coast Guard earlier this week added $8.7 million to Todd's contract to maintain the POLAR STAR.
"The long term Coast Guard icebreaker maintenance contract awarded to Todd Pacific Shipyard helps maintain the skills and expertise of over 200 union workers who price themselves in their ability to repair these unique ships, exposed to the most brutal physical environment imaginable," said Todd CEO Steve Welch. "Further, an additional 100 subcontractor jobs are created whenever the icebreakers are in at Todd."
Added Cantwell, "These ships are important to jobs in the Puget Sound. They also provide a vital service because they are the only ships in the nation that can barrel through thick Arctic and Antarctic ice and deliver key supplies to our polar stations conducting critical scientific research. We need to support the icebreaker program—not undermine it."
During a subcommittee hearing last month, Cantwell asked Admiral Thomas Collins, the commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, about the proposal to shift the fleet's funding mechanism.
"There is a communications challenge," Collins said. "I have to be candid with you, that I have some level of anxiety about how efficient this process will be over time."
In recent years, the number of federal ships home-ported in the Puget Sound has declined from 30 to 17, reducing jobs and ship repair opportunities for Washington state's marine industry. Cantwell believes that ensuring a future for the Coast Guard's icebreaker fleet is an important step in reversing this trend.
Text of letter follows below:
April 25, 2005
The Honorable Judd Gregg
Chairman
Subcommittee on Homeland Security
Senate Appropriations Committee
Washington , DC 20510
The Honorable Robert C. Byrd
Ranking Member
Subcommittee on Homeland Security
Senate Appropriations Committee
Washington , DC 20510
Dear Chairman Gregg and Senator Byrd:
As you consider the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2006, we urge you to provide sufficient funds to the United States Coast Guard to operate and maintain its polar icebreaker fleet. Such funds should include consideration of the eventual recapitalization needs of these vital national assets.
The polar icebreaking mission was transferred from the U.S. Navy to the U.S. Coast Guard in 1965, continuing a legacy of support for a variety of important national functions including defense and scientific research. The fleet's three remaining vessels (the POLAR STAR, the POLAR SEA, and the HEALY) are the U.S. government's only polar icebreaking assets.
Unfortunately, the Administration's FY 2006 budget request proposes transferring the funding for operation and maintenance of these vessels to the National Science Foundation (NSF), while leaving operational responsibility with the Coast Guard. No other Coast Guard asset is funded subject to the budgeting decisions of another federal agency. We are very concerned that this proposal will create funding uncertainty that could eventually undermine the continuation of these critical assets, jeopardizing the ability of the United States to maintain a presence in the polar regions. Under the Administration's plan, NSF would not be required to use the Coast Guard's icebreaking capacity and could look to other countries to provide a platform for its scientific missions to the Arctic and Antarctic. A precedent for such a relationship was established in FY 2005 when NSF contracted with a Russian vessel while the POLAR SEA was in port for repairs. This trend in policy is clearly contrary to the recommendations of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, which called for in Recommendation 27-4 "the refurbishment or replacement of two U.S. Coast Guard polar ice breakers."
We hope that you will join us in continuing to support our nation's icebreaking capacity for now and for the future. Maintaining these Coast Guard assets is vitally important for keeping the United States operationally independent and secure in polar waters.
Sincerely,
Olympia J. Snowe
Chairman
Fisheries and Coast Guard Subcommittee
Commerce, Science, and Transportation
Maria Cantwell
Ranking Member
Fisheries and Coast Guard Subcommittee
Commerce, Science, and Transportation
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