Top Lawmakers Fashion A Fast Track for Deepwater

Sea Power, Jun 2006 by Scully, Megan

Key lawmakers in the House and Senate are preparing to use several legislative vehicles to add funding to rapidly accelerate the Integrated Deepwater System program, the Coast Guard's $24 billion, 25-year effort to modernize existing cutters and purchase an array of new vessels, aircraft, and their associated intelligence and communications systems.

Deepwater supporters cite the agency's effective and central role during the response to Hurricane Katrina. But they quickly add that the Coast Guard needs to upgrade its aging fleet of cutters and aircraft to respond to future natural disasters or terrorist attacks on U.S. shores. And despite a positive government report on Deepwater, there are lingering concerns in some Capitol Hill offices about the Coast Guard's management of the huge program.

"I don't want us to look back and wish we had anticipated that these assets were not up to the requirements for the challenge," said New Jersey Republican Rep. Frank LoBiondo, who chairs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation subcommittee.

Meanwhile, program supporters are buoyed by a recent report from government inspectors that concludes the Coast Guard has made significant progress in improving the management of Deepwater.

The Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative wing, has long been skeptical of the program, which the Coast Guard has altered dramatically since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But an April 28 report found that program managers have impiemented many of the investigators recommendations, and appear to be on the right track.

With the Deepwater officials making continued progress, LoBiondo intends to insert language into the fiscal year 2007 Coast Guard authorization bill, which his subcommittee will consider in the next several weeks, to speed die effort along. His first goal is to make Deepwater a 20-year program, but he hopes to accelerate the effort even further.

"I think if we were able to some way turn it into a 15- or an 18-year program, we will save an enormous amount of money and we will be just light years ahead of where we are now for preparedness," he said. The existing 25-year plan ends in 2027.

LoBiondo, who has unsuccessfully attempted to accelerate Deepwater in past years, said he is "optimistic" about his chances this year. However, he cautioned that members have varying priorities all of which must be weighed in an austere federal budget environment.

In the Senate, the program has a staunch advocate in influential Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, who stressed that speeding up the program could save the federal government billions in the long run.

"I think there's fierce support for the Coast Guard and accelerating Deepwater," Collins said. However, pushing fielding dates forward would require a more weighty investment up front - a looming challenge in an era of belt tightening, she added.

Meanwhile, Del. Donna Christensen, D-Virgin Islands, successfully pushed an amendment through committee markup to the Safe Port Act that would increase 2007 Deepwater funding to almost $1.9 billion. The language, however, was scrubbed from the final bill amid concern that the Coast Guard could not spend the additional money if it was approved by Congress, Christensen said during floor debate. The Coast Guard's 2007 request for Deepwater is $934.4 million.

Meanwhile, other appropria tors in both chambers have been the most skeptical observers of the program, and have largely shied away from increasing the Coast Guard's accounts for Deepwater.

Nonetheless, the Senate already has voted to beef up Deepwater spending by $600 million as part of its sprawling fiscal 2006 emergency supplemental spending package to pay for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and hurricane relief efforts. That would bring 2006 funding to $1.5 billion.

That money - and funding required in subsequent years could accelerate the end date of the program to 2015, said New Hampshire Republican Sen. Judd Gregg, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Homeland Security subcommittee.

If the $600 million provision survives what is expected to be contentious House and Senate conference negotiations on the supplemental spending bill, Congress "will have made major strides forward to getting the Coast Guard upgraded," Gregg said.

The conference talks, which began the second week in May, were not concluded before press time. But House appropriators and the Bush administration have voiced concerns about Senate efforts in recent weeks to add $14.5 billion to the president's total supplemental budget request, making the Deepwater funding a potential target for reductions.

If the effort to boost 2006 funding fails to make it through the conference, appropriators' next chance to boost funding for Deepwater could come as the House Appropriations Committee begins to consider fiscal 2007 spending bills.

Last year, House appropriators expressed concern that the Coast Guard did not provide Congress with adequately detailed program information. As a result, the Coast Guard submitted an omnibus report in February 2006 that followed two packages of additional information on its implementation plan in April and May 2005.