Sep 12, 2021,01:41pm EDT|563 views
Congress Authorizes A Great Lakes Icebreaker The Coast Guard Doesn’t Need
Craig Hooper
As the House Armed Services Committee blew up Joe Biden’s $715 billion Pentagon budget in early September, restive authorizers quietly advanced a new, $350 million Great Lakes-focused icebreaker, a perplexing “gift” for a Coast Guard scrambling to recapitalize a decrepit and failing open-ocean icebreaker fleet.
Few outside observers noticed the addition. Big-ticket ships, including a new Arleigh Burke Class (DDG-51) destroyer, an extra America Class (LHA-6) amphibious assault ship, a John Lewis Class (T-AO-205) fleet oiler, an additional Spearhead Class (T-EPF-1) fast transport ship overshadowed the newly-authorized icebreaker.
The Coast Guard-boosting amendment was also easy to miss, tucked away in an innocuously titled, “Great Lakes Winter Shipping Act of 2021.” Advanced by up-and-coming Republican Congressman Mike Gallagher (WI-8), the legislation opens as an unremarkable request for a grab-bag of Great Lakes ice-breaking studies and proposed ice-breaking mandates. But the amendment closes by ordering up $350 million in funding for “the acquisition of a Great Lakes icebreaker at least as capable as the Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw (WLBB-30),” and $20 million “for the design and selection of icebreaking cutters…that are at least as capable as the Coast Guard 140-ft-icebreaking tugs.”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/craighooper/2021/09/12/congress-authorizes-a-great-lakes-icebreaker-the-coast-guard-doesnt-need/?sh=7a5757a02b78
