U.S. Coast Guard – Iraq Operations, Port Security, and Deepwater

U.S. Coast Guard - Iraq Operations, Port Security, and Deepwater

Thank you Mr. Chairman, and welcome Admiral Allen and Mr. Caldwell.

Admiral, you are widely considered one of America's very best leaders - as demonstrated on 9/11 with the maritime evacuations of Manhattan, and again during the search and rescue operations of Hurricane Katrina. In fact, just last week, the GAO's Comptroller General recognized you as an exemplary manager within the U.S. government. And if there was ever a time the Coast Guard needed leadership, that time is now.

We have all witnessed the Coast Guard's operational proficiency. It is the premier response agency in the nation's government, handling everything from overturned boats, fisheries enforcement, drug interdiction and massive search and rescue operations. Now the Coast Guard has the wider mandate of homeland security - natural disasters and terrorism. And those operational skills have never been as important as they are today - in a post-9/11 world, the Coast Guard is an unquestionably vital contributor to our national security.

But I believe it is fair to say that the future of the Coast Guard is in jeopardy. If the service cannot manage its acquisitions and ensure its critical assets are effectively replaced and modernized, our nation will be considerably more vulnerable. Admiral, we are looking to you to correct these programmatic deficiencies we have all heard so much about. To put it in terms - which I know you'll appreciate -the Coast Guard must be "Always Ready." And to do that, your shipmates need equipment they can depend on.

In 2005, this Subcommittee came down hard on Deepwater - reducing the program's appropriations by almost half until the revised Deepwater implementation plan was submitted. So I think you know we are serious when we say that we will hold you accountable to plan your work and work your plan. Admiral, it has been said that leadership can best be defined as action, not position. So, to put it mildly, we want to see action.

While I know the challenges you face are not easy, no one ever said the mission of the Coast Guard was supposed to be. We've talked about the critics of homeland security in previous hearings, and we've drawn a contrast between them and those who are actually in the arena, whether that means saving lives or managing complex acquisition programs. In this case, however, there are many critics, and they have something important to say. I hope the Coast Guard is listening.

In your State of the Coast Guard address on Tuesday you cited the transformational leaders of the Coast Guard - Alexander Hamilton and Commodore Bertholf. I'd like to mention another transformational leader, Winston Churchill, who led a sweeping upgrade of the British Navy during World War I.

He said: "Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things."

I believe we have an unhealthy state of things with ships that are docked as we speak because they don't work as advertised. We have an unhealthy state of things every hour that goes by when these ships aren't on patrol. I'll be interested to know how you are working with your own Inspector General - whose job is to be critical - to improve the Deepwater acquisition program. How is the information flowing from this review process, how open is your staff in accepting this criticism and putting it to work?

Finally, I am interested to learn more about the plans you announced Tuesday to increase management and oversight of the Deepwater program and how these new procedures will apply this criticism and replace it with action. We on this committee are critics. But under the Constitution, we can put our money where our mouths are.

Our funding cut in 2005 led to complete Deepwater Implementation Plans that helped get this acquisition back on track again. But we are off the track again.

No one wants to see the Coast Guard succeed as much as this Subcommittee. I look forward to hearing your plan to provide modern tools and equipment to the men and women of the Coast Guard, so they have the opportunity to live up to your motto of being "Always Ready." Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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