James Di Pane, an analyst for defense policy at The Heritage Foundation, urged Congress in a report to prioritize spending focused on the Coast Guard’s shore infrastructure as well as its new cutter fleet.
He said this investment in the Coast Guard is necessary to keep pace in the global competition against China.
“Congress should make a point to prioritize the $918.3 million worth of items related to cutter acquisition and shore infrastructure improvements in the Coast Guard’s fiscal year 2024 unfunded priorities list,” Di Pane said.
The report advises Congress to approve both the request for $400 million to acquire four additional cutters as well as the request for $323 million to upgrade its Major Acquisition Systems Infrastructure (MASI).
"The $918.3 million in additional funding highlighted here would help to address some critical needs for the Coast Guard,” Di Pane said. “This investment would provide taxpayers with a big return in protecting America’s interests at sea, especially from an aggressive China that is degrading good maritime governance and undermining American fishermen with illegally caught fish in the market.”
According to the report, the cutters are much more advanced than the patrol boats they are replacing, equipped with improved systems and better range, which allows the Coast Guard to identify possible targets more easily.
The fast cutter response program “would assist with the Coast Guard engagements with partners in the Indo–Pacific region to help to support maritime governance and combat illegal fishing. This is an important element of America’s great-power competition with China,” the report said.
In the report, approval of the Coast Guard’s request for investment for upgrading its Major Acquisition Systems Infrastructure (MASI) was urged.
The report quoted Admiral Linda Fagan in her State of the Coast Guard address in March saying, “Today we have units operating from shore infrastructure that is over 100 years old. More investment will help the Coast Guard to improve its readiness and help the service to use its resources more efficiently”.
She added that this shore infrastructure is necessary to maintain the fleets and begins and ends every Coast Guard mission.
According to the report, the Coast Guard has increased demands “in this new era of great-power competition with China”.
Fagan said that there has never been more need for the Coast Guard globally. She noted that the Coast Guard is needed to control the increase in drug trafficking and illegal fishing, both threats to the American people. The Coast Guard cannot perform these tasks without necessary funds, she added.
