WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Olympia J. Snowe (R-ME), Chair of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Fisheries and Coast Guard, is pleased that the Commerce Committee today passed her Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2005 (S. 1280) to modernize the Coast Guard to meet the both its traditional and new homeland security missions. Snowe’s legislation awaits action by the full Senate.

“The value of the Coast Guard in today's post-9/11 world cannot be overstated. These brave men and women have been working harder than ever securing the nation's coastline, waterways, and ports. While the Coast Guard must maintain a robust homeland security posture, these new priorities cannot diminish its focus on its traditional missions such as marine safety, search and rescue, aids to navigation, fisheries law enforcement, and marine environmental protection,” said Snowe. “The impressive achievements by the Coast Guard of its traditional and its new homeland security missions, however, may not be sustainable unless Congress renews its commitment to fully supporting the Coast Guard.”

Snowe’s legislation would set total authorization for all Coast Guard programs at $8.2 billion for Fiscal Year 2006 and $8.8 billion for Fiscal Year 2007. This represents an 8 percent annual budget increase over the levels in last year's authorization bill. Snowe believes this reflects the increasing investment our nation must make to allow the Coast Guard to meet its mission requirements.

Significantly, Snowe’s bill would authorize full funding for the Coast Guard’s Deepwater Modernization and Recapitalization Program at $1.1 billion in Fiscal Year 2006 and $1.2 billion in 2007. This program is critical to the Coast Guard's future, since many platforms – including several cutters that date back to World War II – are technologically obsolete, require excessive maintenance, lack essential speed, and have poor interoperability.

"I believe the Coat Guard’s Deepwater enjoys strong and near-universal Congressional support, and I have personally made it a top priority to further advance – and even accelerate – this vital military procurement program,” said Snowe. “This legislation demonstrates our commitment to modernizing the Coast Guard's fleet, and to the possibility of accelerating this procurement program should additional funds become available. Considering the state of the Coast Guard’s assets - from cutters to aircraft - we clearly must given the Coast Guard the resources they need to accomplish their missions.”

Snowe believes that an accelerated and expanded Deepwater Program by the U.S. Coast Guard could help support the two shipyards that have built the Navy’s larger surface combatants at Bath Iron Works (BIW) in Bath, ME and Ingalls Shipyard in Pascagoula, MS.

During a hearing she chaired on Tuesday on the Coast Guard’s Deepwater Program, Ronald O’Rourke with the Congressional Research Service told Snowe, “[A]ccelerating procurement of Deepwater National Security Cutters (NSCs) and Offshore Patrol Cutters (OPCs) could help support the two shipyards that have built the Navy’s larger surface combatants in recent years – General Dynamics’ Bath Iron Works of Bath, ME, and Northrop Grumman’s Ingalls Shipyards of Pascagoula, MS.”

“An accelerated Deepwater program also means that more cutters would need to be built quickly over a ten year timeline. If this plan is ultimately accepted, there could be enough work in building these cutters to support two shipyards - both Bath Iron Works in Maine and Ingalls in Mississippi,” continued Snowe

Snowe is disappointed by a recent Bush Administration report on the Coast Guard’s Revised Deepwater Implementation Report that was released on March 25th, proposing that the number of new ships and airframes to be procured could possibly be scaled back. If implemented, this new plan would further compromise the service's overall mission effectiveness in a post-9/11 world.

The Coast Guard estimated that by accelerating Deepwater to a 10 or 15 year timeline, there could be up to $4 billion in saved maintenance costs and better performance over the life of the program.

Snowe’s legislation also contains provisions that would:

• Allow the Coast Guard to enforce provisions of the Maritime Transportation Security Act, an essential element in securing the nation's ports and waterways.

• Allow the Coast Guard to continue safety training for both the commercial fishing industry and the recreational boating public.

• Addresses joint training for foreign nations, which facilitate development of bilateral agreements to effectively combat trafficking of illegal narcotics into the United States.

• Includes provisions that would allow the Coast Guard to work with other federal agencies in developing plans to assist vessels in distress, thus eliminating the potential for loss of life and environmental damage.

• Directs the Coast Guard to develop steps for better detecting and interdicting vessels, both American and foreign-flagged, that are violating fishing regulations.

Last year alone, the Coast Guard conducted more than 36,000 port security patrols, boarded over 19,000 vessels, escorted over 7,200 vessels, and maintained more than 115 security zones. In 2004, it responded to over 32,000 calls for assistance, saved 5,500 lives, seized 376,000 pounds of illegal narcotics, and stopped more than 11,000 illegal migrants from reaching our shores. It conducted 4,500 fishing vessel boardings and responded to 23,904 pollution incidents.