03.17.05

Cantwell Pushes to Ensure Future for Seattle-Based Fleet of Coast Guard Icebreakers

In first hearing as lead Democrat on Commerce Subcommittee, Cantwell calls forfull funding and continued Coast Guard managment of nation's only icebreaker fleet

WASHINGTON, D.C. – During her first hearing as the Ranking Member on the Senate Fisheries and Coast Guard Subcommittee, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) called for increased funding for the Coast Guard's Seattle-based fleet of polar icebreakers. Cantwell also questioned the wisdom of the Administration's plan to move budgetary control for the icebreakers from the Coast Guard to the National Science Foundation (NSF).

"The Seattle-based fleet of icebreakers provides an irreplaceable service to our country," Cantwell said. "These 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 climate change research."

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.

During today's hearing, Cantwell asked Admiral Thomas Collins, the Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, "Aren't we already with this proposal short-circuiting the operations and maintenance of this program?"

Collins said that next year's budget contains money for short-term maintenance costs, but he discussed a key report, due in Spring 2006, which will recommend whether to continue to maintain – or possibly replace – the three aging polar icebreakers.

Predicting what the report would recommend, Collins said, "As a betting man, I would bet some money that [the report] would say, ‘This nation needs polar ice breakers. There is strategic importance to this nation to have an ability to exert a presence in the Arctic and Antarctic.'"

Cantwell expressed concern about a Bush administration proposal to shift budgetary control for the polar icebreakers from the Coast Guard to the National Science Foundation, with the Coast Guard maintaining "operations and maintenance" of the vessels. Under that proposal, the National Science Foundation would be the Coast Guard's "customer."

"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."

Cantwell is a member of the Senate's Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. Just last week she was named ‘Ranking Member' of the committee's Fisheries and Coast Guard Subcommittee, a distinction given to the panel's most senior Democrat.

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