The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee on Wednesday unanimously approved by voice vote forwarding to the full Senate the nomination of Adm. Linda Fagan to be the next commandant of the Coast Guard.
If confirmed, Fagan will be the first woman to lead the Coast Guard and any of the U.S. Armed Forces. Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz’s four-year term at the helm expires on June 1.
At her confirmation hearing in late April before the committee, Fagan said her top “priority will be to modernize our talent management systems, which has not significantly changed in 75 years, to best recruit and retain our people in the 21st Century.” She said the Coast Guard’s future workforce “must reflect the American public we serve and requires the tools, policy, training, and support to succeed across all our mission areas.”
Fagan, a 37-year veteran of the Coast Guard who has been serving as vice commandant since June 21 and was commander of the Pacific Area before that, will be responsible for overseeing an ongoing recapitalization of the service’s surface and air assets while also ensuring that the Coast Guard has the resources it needs to operate and support (O&S) its existing assets. Raising the level of O&S funding has been a priority for Schultz, who has had success in this area the past two years as the service continues to struggle with a host of aging legacy assets.