At the conclusion of a Senate hearing on Tuesday to consider the nomination of Vice Adm. Karl Schultz to be the next Commandant of the Coast Guard, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) who chaired the confirmation hearing, said he expects the Schultz to be confirmed.
“I think it’s safe to say that the prospects of your confirmation are pretty darn good,” Wicker told Schultz, who is currently the commander of the Coast Guard’s Atlantic Area and is also director of the Department of Homeland Security Joint Task Force East.
Wicker said that Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), who chairs the full Senate Commerce, Science, & Transportation Committee, plans to take up the Schultz nomination for a vote at the committee’s next markup, which is expected within a week or two.
If confirmed, Schultz will succeed Adm. Paul Zukunft, who will retire at the end of May after a four-year term leading the Coast Guard. Schultz appeared to enjoy bipartisan support from committee members his confirmation hearing.
During the nomination hearing, Schultz kept to the same basic messaging around key Coast Guard budget needs that Zukunft has been pressing, including a $2 billion floor for the acquisition account to keep pace with ongoing asset recapitalization and 5 percent annual growth in the operations and support account to sustain readiness and catch up with $1.6 billion maintenance backlog.
New systems the Coast Guard is acquiring are more sophisticated and capable than the legacy assets they are replacing and are also “considerably more expensive to maintain and operate,” Schultz said. This is an area of the budget that the service will have “to pay keen attention in the coming years,” adding that “I don’t think we’re in a dire situation,” he said in response to a question from Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), the committee’s ranking member.
Schultz said any discussion on a fleet of polar icebreakers needs to begin with the current mission needs, which are three heavy and three medium vessels. He highlighted U.S. national security, political, natural resource and environmental interests in the Arctic.
The Coast Guard next month will receive industry proposals for the design and construction of a new heavy polar icebreaker that is expected to be delivered in 2023.
Schultz touted the National Security Cutter (NSC) fleet the Coast Guard is growing for its capabilities in drug interdiction and other missions, adding the service appreciates the fact that Congress added funding for two new NSCs in the fiscal year 2018 appropriations bill. The funds for the 10th and 11th NSCs weren’t requested by the Trump administration.
Schultz highlighted the cutter James for its “flexibility and adaptability” last fall during the hurricane season. First, he said, when the Coast Guard pulled most of its ships doing counter-drug operations, the James remained in the Eastern Pacific and essentially took over the role of Joint Interagency Task Force-South. Obviously not at the same level of fidelity that JIATF-South could do but they were able to manage the counter-drug mission from the sophisticated capabilities that the James and the National Security Cutter brings to the table.”
After Hurricane Maria pounded Puerto Rico and the Coast Guard’s command sector in San Juan lost all of its capabilities, the James transited the Panama Canal and anchored in San Juan Harbor and provided the service with the command and control it needed to support response missions there, Schultz said.
Schultz also said he supports Coast Guard plans to recapitalize its inland fleet of cutters with the new Waterway Commerce Cutter.