American Military News February 22, 2020 Julia Bergman - The Day
The Coast Guard is facing growing operational requirements — patrolling a changing Arctic, taking on transnational crime, helping to stabilize the Arabian gulf — but federal budgets have not reflected many of the service’s defense contributions, Adm. Karl Schultz said Thursday.
Over the past five years, the “readiness funding†for the Department of Defense, which also is facing a growing portfolio of work, has grown nearly three times as much as the Coast Guard’s, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security. That’s despite the two services sharing the same types of readiness challenges, Schultz, the Coast Guard commandant, said.
But, he said, the budget enacted last fiscal year and the one proposed recently by President Donald Trump “starts us on a healthier funding trajectory,†including $555 million for a second Polar Security Cutter for the service.
“The long-term solution is to recognize the Coast Guard’s crucial role in maintaining our national security. I continue to advocate for a return to a ‘security’ and ‘nonsecurity’ appropriations framework, which would help ensure the Coast Guard is funded in parity with the rest of the military services,†Schultz said in his second State of the Coast Guard address in Charleston, S.C.
More:
https://americanmilitarynews.com/2020/02/state-of-the-coast-guard-address-details-challenges-that-lie-ahead/
