By Calvin Biesecker
In its annual budget request to Congress for acquisition needs, the Coast Guard wants its out-year funding projections to always be included and would like to be able to count on that funding to be there, the Coast Guard Commandant said on Friday.
Adm. Thad Allen, who will be retiring from the Coast Guard this spring, said that his outgoing wish list includes “that consideration be given to create multi-year estimates that allow us to plan our acquisitions against a predictable funding stream.” Allen was referring to a five-year capital investment plan (CIP), which provides a line-item breakout of out-year funding the service would like for each asset it is purchasing.
A CIP was provided as part of the Coast Guard’s FY ’11 budget request to Congress earlier this month. However, a year ago, the CIP wasn’t ready when the FY ’10 budget was proposed to Congress. The Coast Guard is seeking $1.4 billion for its acquisition budget in FY ’11, rising to $1.5 billion in fiscal years 2013, 2014 and 2015, according to the CIP.
Allen pointed out that for the past four years the Coast Guard has restructured its acquisition processes, management and organization. Nonetheless, he said, “As improved as we are, our acquisition baselines lack credibility when they are not supported by a five-year capital investment plan provided to Congress in a timely manner or are overtaken and rendered ineffective by annual adjustments that change basic business plans. To our congressional partners, we are working to change that.”
Speaking at his last State of the Coast Guard address, Allen said that constrained federal budgets can be expected for the “foreseeable future.” The Coast Guard’s overall budget request for FY ’11 is essentially level with FY ’10.
Knowing that future budgets would be constrained, Allen said last month that going forward the Coast Guard must recapitalize its assets even if it meant greater risk to carrying out its operations (Defense Daily, Jan. 14). On Friday, he reiterated the need to recapitalize assets but changed the wording on fulfilling missions.
“Our intent is to manage current operations as funded in order to sustain our recapitalization program,” Allen said. “The president’s budget does this. This represents the best way forward given a constrained funding level. And let me add here it is the commandant’s and the Coast Guard’s responsibility to manage current ops with the force size and structure in the budget. We can and we will do this.”
Another item on Allen’s wish list relates to Coast Guard missions. Addressing his “partners,” although he didn’t specifically identify them, Allen said the Coast Guard “should resist the urge to parse our mission set.”
Allen said that “We would appreciate an acknowledgement by all of our partners of the following attributes of our service…We are multi-mission, whole of government service agency and have the capability to respond along our coast and offshore to any non-defense related incident related to our national interest. We support nearly every department and specialized agency of our government.”
Allen said that he has been asked what certain legacy Coast Guard missions such as tending to aids to navigation and maritime safety have to do with homeland security. The answer, he said, is contained in the just released Quadrennial Homeland Security Review.
“Protection of critical infrastructure; security and resiliency of global movement systems; effective emergency response; and continuity of central services and functions,” Allen said. “All of those relate to Coast Guard missions. All of those relate to the Department of Homeland Security.”
Congressional supporters of the Coast Guard have always been concerned that the inclusion of the service as a component of DHS would create pressure to sacrifice traditional missions such as fisheries protection and search and rescue in favor of outright terrorist prevention operations.