Coast Guard announces deep cuts for 2011

USCGC Acushnet WMEC-167 - Slated for decom in the FY11 Budget Request

My employer, the U.S. Coast Guard announced today that it expects to make difficult reductions in operational capacity in the next fiscal year.  This follows the submission of the President’s Fiscal Year 2011 Budget Request to congress, which includes the Coast Guard’s request for $10.08 billion dollars.  The FY11 request is down from the FY10 $10.42 billion appropriation.

Once again, it appears the Coast Guard is going to have to do more with less.  This follows budget reductions across different federal departments and agencies as President Obama begins to cut federal spending across the board.

A summary of the major reductions include:

• Decommissioning 5 cutters – USCGCs HAMILTON, CHASE, RUSH, JARVIS, and ACUSHNET.
• Decommissioning 5 Maritime Safety & Security Teams (MSSTs) – Anchorage, San Francisco, New Orleans, New York, and Kings Bay.
• Decommissioning 5 HH-65 helicopters
• Decommissioning 4 HU-25 Falcons
• Reduction of 773 full time positions

This also follows the already announced elimination of the LORAN-C navigation system.  A few of the reductions were already planned, but most were difficult trades in order to continue funding the recapitalization of aging assets.

A copy of the full budget request can be found here.

The Commandant of the Coast Guard, ADM Thad Allen, made the announcement to the service in an all-hands e-mail, and a post to his iCommandant Blog.  Here is the excerpt of the message:

To the Men and Women of the United States Coast Guard:

Earlier today, the President’s Fiscal Year 2011(FY11) budget request, including the Coast Guard’s submission, was submitted to the Congress. Our Congressional oversight committees will now consider our request and appropriate funding for the new fiscal year that begins on 01 October 2010. Here is what it means for our Service.

There are many ways to look at the Coast Guard budget and a link is provided at the conclusion of this All Hands. The most useful way to consider the impact on operations and recapitalization is the following: The total amount of discretionary funding (e.g. funding to operate and recapitalize the Service) requested for the Coast Guard in FY11 is $8.467 billion dollars. The discretionary amount provided by Congressional appropriations for FY10, the current fiscal year, was $8.542 billion dollars. So, the bottom line is we will operate the Coast Guard, continue to recapitalize our aging assets, support our Reserve component, and a myriad of other critical activities with $75 million dollars less than we received in FY10. It is critical that each member of our Coast Guard team understand the fiscal environment in which we are operating and how difficult tradeoffs were made in various funding categories, most notably between operating funds and funding to recapitalize our aging assets.

First, the President’s budget acknowledges the unique value we provide to the Nation. As our ongoing efforts in Haiti indicate, we are a highly effective instrument of national power at home and abroad. At the same time the Coast Guard and other federal agencies and military services are facing a constrained budget environment.

The country is in the midst of an economic downturn. As President Obama said in his State of the Union address last week: “Families across the country are tightening their belts…the federal government should do the same.” This is reflected in our FY11 budget submission. As sound fiscal stewards, we will meet the President’s fiscal objectives while continuing to provide superior service to the public.

The challenge I face with Secretary Napolitano is to make tough budgetary decisions. In the case of the Coast Guard’s FY11 request, we have made a tradeoff between day to day operations and the need to build new cutters, aircraft, facilities, and sensors to ensure we can operate in the future. The most significant decision made in this process was to strike a balance between our current operational capacity and the preservation of our future capabilities. Together with senior Coast Guard leadership and Secretary Napolitano and her staff, we decided to invest in our future through the continued acquisition of new cutters, aircraft, and infrastructure. If we don’t make this commitment to our future, the Coast Guard’s aging fleet will continue to deteriorate and rob us of our ability to protect, defend, and save well into the 21st century.

To afford those future investments in a constrained fiscal environment, we had to make difficult reductions to our operational capacity. Subject to appropriations by Congress, the President’s budget includes a plan to decommission five major cutters, four HU-25 Falcons and five HH-65 helicopters. Some of these decommissionings were previously

planned as we are bringing new assets on line such as BERTHOLF and WAESCHE. We are also decommissioning five Maritime Safety and Security Teams and consolidating forces to achieve savings. By making these reductions, we will be able to continue funding the National Security Cutters, HC-144 Ocean Sentry aircraft, Response Boat-Mediums, as well as the continued refurbishment of our helicopter fleet and shore infrastructure including housing units.

I understand the impacts this will have on our people and their families. We will have a net reduction of 773 full time positions. In FY11, this will be achieved by reducing recruiting. You may also see changes in tour lengths and impacts on advancements. Positions and billets removed from the allowance list will be included in the shopping list published this fall by the Personnel Services Center. We will make every effort to help all members of our workforce through this period.

There is a great deal of uncertainty that surrounds the budget process. None of these proposed changes are final until the Congress appropriates our budget. I will keep you appraised throughout the process.

As the Congressional oversight process proceeds we need to understand that we still must execute our mission and provide mission support for those operations. This will be challenging because the demand for our services continues to grow. We will stay within current operational and personnel tempo standards, manage risk across our full mission spectrum, and allocate existing resources towards the most vulnerable areas.