[House Hearing, 118 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                  ASSESSING THE SHORTAGE OF UNITED STATES 
                   MARINERS AND RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION 
                   IN THE UNITED STATES COAST GUARD

=======================================================================

                                (118-15)

                                HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

                            SUBCOMMITTEE ON
                COAST GUARD AND MARITIME TRANSPORTATION

                                 OF THE

                              COMMITTEE ON
                   TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                    ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS

                             FIRST SESSION

                               __________

                              MAY 11, 2023

                               __________

                       Printed for the use of the
             Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
             
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]            

     Available online at: https://www.govinfo.gov/committee/house-
     transportation?path=/browsecommittee/chamber/house/committee/
                             transportation

                               __________

                                
                    U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE                    
53-227 PDF                 WASHINGTON : 2023                    
          
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------     

             COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE

  Sam Graves, Missouri, Chairman
Rick Larsen, Washington,             Eric A. ``Rick'' Crawford, 
  Ranking Member                     Arkansas
Eleanor Holmes Norton,               Daniel Webster, Florida
  District of Columbia               Thomas Massie, Kentucky
Grace F. Napolitano, California      Scott Perry, Pennsylvania
Steve Cohen, Tennessee               Brian Babin, Texas
John Garamendi, California           Garret Graves, Louisiana
Henry C. ``Hank'' Johnson, Jr., Georgiavid Rouzer, North Carolina
Andre Carson, Indiana                Mike Bost, Illinois
Dina Titus, Nevada                   Doug LaMalfa, California
Jared Huffman, California            Bruce Westerman, Arkansas
Julia Brownley, California           Brian J. Mast, Florida
Frederica S. Wilson, Florida         Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon,
Donald M. Payne, Jr., New Jersey       Puerto Rico
Mark DeSaulnier, California          Pete Stauber, Minnesota
Salud O. Carbajal, California        Tim Burchett, Tennessee
Greg Stanton, Arizona,               Dusty Johnson, South Dakota
  Vice Ranking Member                Jefferson Van Drew, New Jersey,
Colin Z. Allred, Texas                 Vice Chairman
Sharice Davids, Kansas               Troy E. Nehls, Texas
Jesus G. ``Chuy'' Garcia, Illinois   Lance Gooden, Texas
Chris Pappas, New Hampshire          Tracey Mann, Kansas
Seth Moulton, Massachusetts          Burgess Owens, Utah
Jake Auchincloss, Massachusetts      Rudy Yakym III, Indiana
Marilyn Strickland, Washington       Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Oregon
Troy A. Carter, Louisiana            Chuck Edwards, North Carolina
Patrick Ryan, New York               Thomas H. Kean, Jr., New Jersey
Mary Sattler Peltola, Alaska         Anthony D'Esposito, New York
Robert Menendez, New Jersey          Eric Burlison, Missouri
Val T. Hoyle, Oregon                 John James, Michigan
Emilia Strong Sykes, Ohio            Derrick Van Orden, Wisconsin
Hillary J. Scholten, Michigan        Brandon Williams, New York
Valerie P. Foushee, North Carolina   Marcus J. Molinaro, New York
                                     Mike Collins, Georgia
                                     Mike Ezell, Mississippi
                                     John S. Duarte, California
                                     Aaron Bean, Florida
                                ------                                7

        Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation

                   Daniel Webster, Florida, Chairman
Brian Babin, Texas                   Salud O. Carbajal, California,
Brian J. Mast, Florida                 Ranking Member
Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon,            John Garamendi, California
  Puerto Rico                        Chris Pappas, New Hampshire
Jefferson Van Drew, New Jersey       Jake Auchincloss, Massachusetts
Mike Ezell, Mississippi, Vice        Mary Sattler Peltola, Alaska
    Chairman                         Hillary J. Scholten, Michigan,
Aaron Bean, Florida                    Vice Ranking Member
Sam Graves, Missouri (Ex Officio)    Rick Larsen, Washington (Ex 
                                         Officio)

                               CONTENTS

                                                                   Page

Summary of Subject Matter........................................     v

                 STATEMENTS OF MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE

Hon. Daniel Webster, a Representative in Congress from the State 
  of Florida, and Chairman, Subcommittee on Coast Guard and 
  Maritime Transportation, opening statement.....................     1
    Prepared statement...........................................     2
Hon. Rick Larsen, a Representative in Congress from the State of 
  Washington, and Ranking Member, Committee on Transportation and 
  Infrastructure, opening statement..............................     3
    Prepared statement...........................................     5
Hon. Salud O. Carbajal, a Representative in Congress from the 
  State of California, and Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Coast 
  Guard and Maritime Transportation, opening statement...........     6
    Prepared statement...........................................     7

                               WITNESSES

Vice Admiral Paul F. Thomas, Deputy Commandant for Mission 
  Support, U.S. Coast Guard, oral statement......................    12
    Prepared statement...........................................    13
Ann C. Phillips, Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy (Ret.), and 
  Administrator, Maritime Administration, oral statement.........    17
    Prepared statement...........................................    18
Heather MacLeod, Director, Homeland Security and Justice, U.S. 
  Government Accountability Office, oral statement...............    22
    Prepared statement...........................................    24
Beth J. Asch, Ph.D., Senior Economist, RAND Corporation, oral 
  statement......................................................    32
    Prepared statement...........................................    34

                       SUBMISSIONS FOR THE RECORD

Statement from American Maritime Officers; International 
  Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots; Marine Engineers' 
  Beneficial Association; Marine Firemen's Union; Maritime Trades 
  Department, AFL-CIO; Sailors' Union of the Pacific; Seafarers 
  International Union; and Transportation Trades Department, AFL-
  CIO, Submitted for the Record by Hon. Salud O. Carbajal........     8
U.S. Coast Guard Updated Commandant Instruction on Leadership and 
  Diversity Councils, COMDTINST 5350.9A, Flag Voice #545, April 
  22, 2021, Submitted for the Record by Hon. Brian J. Mast.......    54

                                APPENDIX

Questions from Hon. Hillary J. Scholten to Vice Admiral Paul F. 
  Thomas, Deputy Commandant for Mission Support, U.S. Coast Guard    73


[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]


                              May 5, 2023

    SUMMARY OF SUBJECT MATTER

    TO:      LMembers, Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime 
Transportation
    FROM:  LStaff, Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime 
Transportation
    RE:      LSubcommittee Hearing on ``Assessing the Shortage 
of United States Mariners and Recruitment and Retention in the 
United States Coast Guard''
_______________________________________________________________________


                               I. PURPOSE

    The Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation 
will hold a hearing on Thursday, May 11, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. ET 
in 2253 Rayburn House Office Building to receive testimony on 
the ``Assessing the Shortage of United States Mariners and 
Recruitment and Retention in the United States Coast Guard.'' 
The Subcommittee will hear testimony from the United States 
Coast Guard (Coast Guard or Service), the Maritime 
Administration (MARAD), the Government Accountability Office 
(GAO), and the RAND Corporation.

                             II. BACKGROUND

THE UNITED STATES COAST GUARD

    The Coast Guard is currently authorized for an active duty 
end-strength of 44,500.\1\ However, it is operating with a 
deficit of approximately 4,800 members across its workforce.\2\ 
Approximately 3,000 of the 4,800 are active-duty personnel.\3\ 
In fiscal year (FY) 2023, the Coast Guard sought a total of 
59,854 personnel positions to carry out its statutory 
missions.\4\ Despite increased mission demands, the Coast Guard 
has faced limited growth in its ranks, and faces a personnel 
deficit, which is discussed in greater detail below. The 
following chart illustrates the Coast Guard's manpower requests 
over the last five years.\5\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ 14 U.S.C. Sec.  4904.
    \2\ United States Coast Guard, FY 2024 Congressional Budget 
Justification 28 (2023), available at https://www.uscg.mil/Portals/0/
documents/budget/2024/Coast_Guard_FY2024_
Congressional_Justification.pdf.
    \3\ United States Coast Guard Briefing to Congress, Coast Guard 
Recruiting & Retention (on file with Comm.).
    \4\ Coast Guard, Report to Congress, Manpower Requirements Plan (on 
file with Comm.).
    \5\ Id.

                                   Coast Guard Manpower Requests FY 2019-2023
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                Warrant
                         FY                           Officer   Officer   Enlisted  Civilian   Reserve    Total
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019...............................................     7,020     1,727     32,292     9,730     7,015    57,785
2020...............................................     7,151     1,781     32,532     9,873     7,039    58,376
2021...............................................     7,144     1,718     32,424    10,185     7,029    58,500
2022...............................................     7,274     1,785     33,063    10,673     7,015    59,810
2023...............................................     7,399     1,811     33,102    10,525     7,017    59,854
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE UNITED STATES MERCHANT MARINE

    The United States Merchant Marine is composed of the 
civilian mariners that serve aboard United States flagged 
vessels operating in the domestic and foreign maritime trades 
of the United States.\6\ MARAD is the Federal agency 
responsible for fostering the development and maintenance of 
the United States Merchant Marine to ensure there is a 
sufficient number of mariners needed for national security and 
economic purposes.\7\ To this end, MARAD administers several 
programs that help support the employment of United States 
mariners aboard United States flagged vessels, including the 
Maritime Security Program, the Tanker Security Program, and the 
Cable Security Fleet.\8\ MARAD also is responsible for the 
administration of the United States Merchant Marine Academy as 
well as providing support to the six State Maritime 
Academies.\9\ These academies provide the necessary training 
and certifications required to serve as a licensed Merchant 
Marine Officer upon graduation.\10\ MARAD also works in 
collaboration with the Coast Guard and the Department of 
Defense on the Military to Mariner program which helps veterans 
capitalize on military experience and receive merchant marine 
credentials after separation from the Armed Forces.\11\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \6\ MARAD, Military to Mariner, available at https://
www.maritime.dot.gov/outreach/military-mariner (last updated July 19, 
2021) [hereinafter DOT Military to Mariner].
    \7\ 49 C.F.R. Sec.  1.92.
    \8\ See 46 U.S.C. Sec. Sec.  53101-54012.
    \9\ MARAD, Maritime Academies, available at https://
www.maritime.dot.gov/education/maritime-academies/maritime-academies 
(last updated Jun. 22, 2022).
    \10\ Id.
    \11\ DOT Military to Mariner, supra note 6.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

MERCHANT MARINER CREDENTIALS

    The Coast Guard is also responsible for issuing Merchant 
Mariner Credentials.\12\ The Information Technology (IT) 
infrastructure for the Coast Guard's Merchant Mariner Licensing 
and Documentation System was established in the early 1990s and 
has significant limitations. The system is used to issue 
approximately 200,000 merchant mariner credentials to mariners 
serving on United States vessels. In its FY 2024 Unfunded 
Priorities List, the Coast Guard requested $11 million to 
upgrade and modernize its credentialing system,\13\ and the 
Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2023 as reported by the 
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure authorizes that 
new credentialing system.\14\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \12\ 46 U.S.C. Sec.  7302.
    \13\ Coast Guard, FY 2024 Unfunded Priorities List (2023), 
available at https://www.uscg.mil/Portals/0/documents/budget/2024/
Unfunded_Priorities_List_FY2024.pdf.
    \14\ Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2023, H.R. 2741, 118th Cong. 
(2023) [hereinafter 2023 CGAA].
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

  III. RECRUITING AND RETENTION CHALLENGES IN THE UNITED STATES COAST 
                                 GUARD

    Like other military services, the Coast Guard has fallen 
short of its recruiting targets, failing to meet its goals on 
an average of 20 percent each year since 2018.\15\ The gap is 
expected to increase in coming years and is especially acute in 
the enlisted ranks. By 2025, the Coast Guard expects to be 
short several hundred officers and nearly 6,000 enlisted 
members.\16\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \15\ Caitlin Yilek, Norah O'Donnell, & Angel Canales, How the Coast 
Guard plans to boost recruitment after years of shortfalls, CBS News, 
(Dec. 7, 2022), available at https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coast-guard-
recruitment-challenges-shortfalls/.
    \16\ United States Coast Guard Briefing to Congress, Coast Guard 
Recruiting & Retention (on file with Comm.).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The Service is confronting a landscape where the pool of 
eligible candidates for military service is shrinking. 
According to the Department of Defense, 23 percent of Americans 
ages 17 to 24 are qualified to serve without a waiver; with 
physical fitness concerns, criminal history, and prescription 
and illegal drug-related issues being the primary disqualifiers 
for many.\17\ Moreover, just 9 percent of those eligible to 
serve have an interest in doing so.\18\ Compounding on these 
challenges is the current 3.5 percent unemployment rate.\19\ 
Historically, military recruiting suffers when the nation has a 
robust economy and low unemployment.\20\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \17\ Molly Boigon & Courtney Kube, Every branch of the military is 
struggling to make its 2022 recruiting goals, officials say, NBC News, 
(June 27, 2022), available at https://www.nbcnews.com/news/military/
every-branch-us-military-struggling-meet-2022-recruiting-goals-officia-
rcna35078.
    \18\ Id.
    \19\ Bureau of Labor Statistics, The Employment Situation--March 
2023, available at https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf.
    \20\ Heather Mongilio, Tough Military Recruiting Environment is 
About More than Low Unemployment, Experts Say, USNI News, (Dec. 2, 
2022), available at https://news.usni.org/2022/12/01/tough-military-
recruiting-environment-is-about-much-more-than-low-unemployment-
experts-say.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    To address these challenges, the Coast Guard sought in this 
year's budget request $12 million to fund additional personnel 
and offices to augment its recruiting efforts.\21\ 
Additionally, the Coast Guard intends to implement a multi-
tiered strategy to address its recruiting and retention 
challenges, that includes relaxing certain requirements to 
expand the aperture of qualified candidates and adjusting 
personnel policies, including those related to parental leave 
and promotions in an effort to retain personnel.\22\ To support 
the Coast Guard's efforts, the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 
2023, as reported by Committee, authorizes for FY2024 and 
FY2025, $11.98 million to fund additional recruiting personnel 
and offices for the Coast Guard recruiting Command and $9 
million to enhance Coast Guard recruiting capabilities.\23\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \21\ Coast Guard, 2024 Budget Fact Sheet, available at https://
www.uscg.mil/Portals/
0/documents/budget/2024/Coast_Guard_FY2024_Posture_Statement_FINAL.pdf.
    \22\ See 46 U.S.C. Sec. Sec.  53101-54012.
    \23\ CGAA 2023, supra note 14.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for 
Fiscal Year 2023 (P.L. 117-263) directs the Coast Guard to 
establish at least one Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps 
(JROTC) program in each Coast Guard district by December 31, 
2025.\24\ To date, the Coast Guard maintains six JROTC units at 
high schools in the East Coast.\25\ It has plans to launch four 
more programs this year, including the first program to be 
stood up on the West Coast.\26\ The expectation is that such 
programs will raise the Coast Guard's visibility and augment 
recruiting numbers.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \24\ National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023, Pub. 
L. No. 117-263 [hereinafter NDAA FY23].
    \25\ Coast Guard, JROTC Units, available at https://www.uscg.mil/
Community/JROTC/JROTC-Units/.
    \26\ Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

                IV. SHORTAGES IN THE MARITIME WORKFORCE

    In 2017, MARAD estimated that the United States Merchant 
Marine faced a shortfall of 1,800 qualified licensed and 
unlicensed mariners needed in the event of a full mobilization 
to operate sealift assets.\27\ A full mobilization in this 
sense refers to the activation of all militarily useful sealift 
assets in the commercial fleet and the Ready Reserve Force 
(RRF) for a period exceeding four to six months.\28\ MARAD has 
since indicated that the shortage has likely grown.\29\ For the 
purposes of ensuring that a sufficient number of civilian 
mariners are available for surge sealift scenarios, MARAD needs 
access to reliable mariner credential data, which is maintained 
in the Coast Guard's Merchant Mariner Licensing and 
Documentation System.\30\ Unfortunately, limitations in the 
system leaves it as an unreliable source for MARAD to determine 
the accurate number of appropriately credentialed and healthy 
mariners, underscoring the need for modernization of the 
system.\31\ Section 11511, Modernizing Merchant Mariner 
Credentialing System, of the Don Young Coast Guard 
Authorization Act of 2022, requires the Coast Guard to 
establish an electronic merchant mariner credentialing system 
by the end of 2025.\32\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \27\ Mobility and Transportation Command Posture, Hearing before 
the Subcomm. on Seapower and Projection Forces and the Subcomm. on 
Readiness of the H. Comm. on Armed Services, 115th Cong. (2018) 
(statement of Rear Admiral Mark H. Buzby), available at https://
docs.house.gov/meetings/AS/AS03/20180308/106952/HHRG-115-AS03-Wstate-
BuzbyM-20180308.PDF.
    \28\ Id.
    \29\ Posture and Readiness of the Mobility Enterprise, Hearing 
before the Subcomm. on Readiness and the Subcomm. on Seapower and 
Protection Forces of the H. Comm. on Armed Services, 118th Cong. (2023) 
(Statement of Rear Admiral Ann C. Phillips), available at https://
armedservices.house.gov/sites/republicans.armedservices.house.gov/
files/Administrator
%20Phillips%20Witness%20Statement.pdf.
    \30\ MARAD, Opportunities and Challenges to Increasing the Number 
of United States Coast Guard Credential Mariners, DOT, available at 
https://www.maritime.dot.gov/sites/marad.dot.gov/files/2020-07/
Mariner%20Opportunities%20and%20Challenges%20Report%20%28002%29.pdf.
    \31\ Id.
    \32\ FY23 NDAA, supra note 24.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 
(P.L. 117-263) included a provision codifying a requirement for 
the United States Department of Transportation (DOT), in 
consultation with the Coast Guard and the United States 
Transportation Command, to develop a national maritime strategy 
that promotes the United States maritime industry's ability to 
meet national security and economic needs.\33\ To better inform 
this strategy, DOT and the Coast Guard must enter into an 
agreement with a federally funded research and development 
center to conduct a study that will identify the key elements 
needed for the national maritime strategy.\34\ Among these 
elements, the study will review the availability of United 
States' mariners, including the number of mariners needed in 
the United States over the next 30 years, the policies and 
programs in place for recruiting and training mariners, 
potential improvements for these policies and programs, and the 
estimated resource needs to implement these improved 
programs.\35\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \33\ Id.
    \34\ Id.
    \35\ Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

                              V. WITNESSES

     LVice Admiral Paul Thomas, Deputy Commandant for 
Mission Support, United States Coast Guard
     LRear Admiral Ann Phillips, USN (Ret.), 
Administrator, United States Maritime Administration
     LMs. Heather MacLeod, Director, Homeland Security 
and Justice, United States Government Accountability Office
     Dr. Beth Asch, Ph.D., Senior Economist, RAND 
Corporation

 
 ASSESSING THE SHORTAGE OF UNITED STATES MARINERS AND RECRUITMENT AND 
               RETENTION IN THE UNITED STATES COAST GUARD

                              ----------                              


                         THURSDAY, MAY 11, 2023

                  House of Representatives,
                    Subcommittee on Coast Guard and
                           Maritime Transportation,
            Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10 a.m. in room 
2253 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Daniel Webster 
(Chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
    Mr. Webster of Florida. The Subcommittee on Coast Guard and 
Maritime Transportation will come to order.
    I ask unanimous consent, as chairman, to be authorized to 
declare a recess at any time during the hearing.
    Without objection, show that done.
    I ask unanimous consent that Members not on the 
subcommittee be permitted to ask questions and be a part of the 
committee.
    Without objection, show that ordered.
    As a reminder, if Members insert a document in the record, 
please email it to the T&I Committee.
    So, I will recognize myself for the purpose of an opening 
statement for 5 minutes.

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. DANIEL WEBSTER OF FLORIDA, CHAIRMAN, 
    SUBCOMMITTEE ON COAST GUARD AND MARITIME TRANSPORTATION

    Mr. Webster of Florida. Today, we receive testimony 
regarding the shortage of United States mariners and 
recruitment and retention challenges in the United States Coast 
Guard. We look forward to hearing from our witnesses on what is 
driving the manpower shortage in the United States Coast Guard 
and the United States merchant marine and what work can be done 
to address those shortages.
    I would like to welcome our witnesses: Vice Admiral Paul 
Thomas, Deputy Commandant for Mission Support, United States 
Coast Guard; Rear Admiral Ann Phillips, Administrator for the 
United States Maritime Administration; Heather MacLeod, 
Director of Homeland Security and Justice for the United States 
Government Accountability Office; and Beth Asch--is it 
``Asch''?
    Ms. Asch. Yes, sir.
    Mr. Webster of Florida. Senior economist at the RAND 
Corporation.
    The Coast Guard is currently authorized for an Active Duty 
strength of 44,500 men and women but is operating with a 
shortfall of approximately 4,800 members across the workforce. 
Despite the increasing mission demands, the Coast Guard, like 
other services, have faced limited growth in the ranks and is 
projected to see their personnel deficit grow in the coming 
years.
    To help reverse those trends, the Coast Guard Authorization 
Act of 2023 was reported from this committee last month with 
authorizations of $12 million to fund additional recruiting 
personnel and offices under Coast Guard Recruiting Command and 
$9 million to enhance Coast Guard recruiting capabilities.
    I understand the Coast Guard intends to implement a 
multitiered strategy to address these challenges that includes 
relaxing certain requirements to expand the pool of qualified 
candidates, as well as adjusting personnel policies, including 
those related to parental leave and promotions, to retain 
existing personnel. I look forward to hearing more about those 
efforts and how they are working.
    As we experience challenges in Coast Guard recruiting and 
retention, we also face a shortfall in our civilian merchant 
marine workforce. In 2017, MARAD estimated that the United 
States merchant marine faced a shortfall of 1,800 qualified 
licensed and unlicensed mariners needed in the event of a full 
mobilization to operate sealift assets. MARAD has since 
indicated that the shortage will likely grow.
    The fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act 
directed the Department of Transportation, in consultation with 
the Coast Guard and with United States Transportation Command, 
to develop a national maritime strategy that promotes the 
domestic maritime industry's ability to meet national security 
and economic needs.
    To further bolster these efforts, the committee included in 
the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2023 provisions that 
reduce bureaucratic delays and barriers to Americans seeking a 
seagoing career. Additionally, we authorized $11 million to 
upgrade the Coast Guard's IT infrastructure for the Coast 
Guard's Merchant Mariner Licensing and Documentation System 
that was established in the early 1990s and has significant 
limitations.
    We look forward to hearing from you on what other ways we 
can support your efforts. Thank you for participating today. I 
look forward to your testimony.
    [Mr. Webster of Florida's prepared statement follows:]

                                 
    Prepared Statement of Hon. Daniel Webster of Florida, Chairman, 
        Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation
    Today, we receive testimony regarding the shortage of United States 
Mariners and recruitment and retention challenges in the United States 
Coast Guard. We look forward to hearing from our witnesses on what is 
driving a manpower shortage in the United States Coast Guard and the 
United States Merchant Marine, and what can be done to address these 
shortages.
    I'd like to welcome our witnesses--Vice Admiral Paul Thomas, Deputy 
Commandant for Mission Support, United States Coast Guard; Rear Admiral 
Ann Phillips, Administrator of the United States Maritime 
Administration; Heather MacLeod, Director, Homeland Security and 
Justice, United States Government Accountability Office; and Dr. Beth 
Asch, Senior Economist at the RAND Corporation.
    The Coast Guard is currently authorized for an active-duty end-
strength of 44,500 men and women but is operating with a shortfall of 
approximately 4,800 members across its workforce. Despite ever 
increasing mission demands, the Coast Guard, like other services, has 
faced limited growth in its ranks, and is projected to see its 
personnel deficit grow in the coming years.
    To help reverse this trend, the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 
2023 was reported from this Committee last month with authorizations of 
$12 million to fund additional recruiting personnel and offices for the 
Coast Guard Recruiting Command and $9 million to enhance Coast Guard 
recruiting capabilities.
    I understand the Coast Guard intends to implement a multi-tiered 
strategy to address these challenges that includes relaxing certain 
requirements to expand the pool of qualified candidates, as well as 
adjusting personnel policies, including those related to parental leave 
and promotions, to retain existing personnel. I look forward to hearing 
more about those efforts.
    As we experience challenges in Coast Guard recruiting and 
retention, we also face a shortfall in our civilian merchant marine 
workforce. In 2017, MARAD estimated that the United States Merchant 
Marine faced a shortfall of 1,800 qualified licensed and unlicensed 
mariners needed in the event of a full mobilization to operate sealift 
assets. MARAD has since indicated that the shortage has likely grown.
    The Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act directed 
the Department of Transportation, in consultation with the Coast Guard 
and the United States Transportation Command, to develop a national 
maritime strategy that promotes the domestic maritime industry's 
ability to meet national security and economic needs.
    To further bolster these efforts, the Committee included in the 
Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2023 provisions to reduce bureaucratic 
delays and barriers to Americans seeking a seagoing career. 
Additionally, we authorized $11 million to upgrade the Coast Guard's IT 
infrastructure for the Coast Guard's Merchant Mariner Licensing and 
Documentation System that was established in the early 1990s and has 
significant limitations. We look forward to hearing from you on what 
other ways we can support your efforts.

    Mr. Webster of Florida. I now recognize the ranking member, 
Mr. Larsen.
    Mr. Larsen of Washington. Oh.
    Mr. Webster of Florida. You are recognized for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Larsen of Washington. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I always 
forget how nice Salud Carbajal is to give me the opportunity to 
speak before him, and I appreciate that.
    Mr. Carbajal. He is my higher ranking member.

 OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. RICK LARSEN OF WASHINGTON, RANKING 
     MEMBER, COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE

    Mr. Larsen of Washington. Thank you, Chair, for calling 
today's hearing. I apologize, I am getting over a little bit of 
a cold, so, I am giving you my best movie voiceover voice this 
morning.
    The U.S. Coast Guard and the civilian U.S. merchant marine 
are facing a unique challenge with the booming economy and 
historically low unemployment rates--they are having a hard 
time attracting new individuals to service.
    The Coast Guard often prides itself on its ability to do 
more with less. They are a fraction of the size and budget of 
the other services, yet have a significantly wider mission set. 
Being semper paratus with insufficient resources is not 
sustainable.
    The Coast Guard is currently operating with a shortfall of 
more than 4,500 servicemembers. To address this problem, the 
Service is rethinking recruiting by hiring more recruiters, 
expanding the JROTC program, providing referral incentives, and 
deploying targeted advertising.
    The Coast Guard offers unique experiences and opportunities 
to its servicemembers. During an average day, the Coast Guard 
will conduct 109 search-and-rescues, launch 164 aircraft 
missions, seize 475 pounds of illegal drugs, respond to 20 oil 
or hazardous chemical spills, and service 135 aids to 
navigation. A career in the Coast Guard is certainly one to be 
proud of.
    I am confident the Coast Guard can and will do a better job 
of conveying the many opportunities it offers, but the Coast 
Guard needs our help to ensure robust support for Coasties as 
they conduct those missions.
    Without affordable housing, Coasties are required to 
commute hours to work. Without medical access, Coasties go 
without healthcare. Without modern facilities and technology, 
Coasties work in substandard conditions. Without adequate 
childcare, parents will simply leave the Service.
    So, I applaud Admiral Fagan for her refreshing approach 
exemplified by the slogan, ``Tomorrow will look different, and 
so will we.'' If the Coast Guard does not rethink its way of 
doing business, recruitment and retention will only get harder.
    Quality of life is a recruitment and retention issue. While 
it is incumbent on the Coast Guard to tell us what they need, 
Congress needs to better support the women and men who serve.
    The challenges facing the U.S. merchant marine are similar 
to that of the Coast Guard. As workers increasingly value 
flexibility, a maritime career, which often entails living on a 
ship for several months, is less attractive. But, also like the 
Coast Guard, it is an industry that offers the opportunity to 
contribute to society in a valuable way.
    U.S. merchant mariners deliver the majority of defense 
materials overseas, ensure the delivery of U.S. food aid, and 
protect our domestic economic security. Further, a career at 
sea allows women and men to see the world.
    To attract more mariners to the industry, Congress and the 
administration must ensure stable employment opportunities. 
That means full and consistent funding for the Maritime 
Security Program and the Tanker Security Program. That means 
ensuring full compliance with cargo preference laws. That means 
sending a strong message that the Jones Act will not be eroded 
or repealed.
    In the recently reported Coast Guard Authorization Act, I 
am very pleased that this committee included several provisions 
aimed at increasing the pool of merchant mariners. One of those 
provisions would better align licensing requirements with 
international standards to remove a burden upon the mariner, 
while maintaining safety. Another would fix an anomaly in the 
law to allow people from American Samoa to enter the industry.
    I look forward to working with my colleagues to ensure 
these provisions become law, and I also look forward to hearing 
from our witnesses today about other ways to attract and retain 
merchant mariners.
    With that, thank you, Mr. Chair; thank you, Ranking Member; 
and I yield back.
    [Mr. Larsen of Washington's prepared statement follows:]

                                 
 Prepared Statement of Hon. Rick Larsen of Washington, Ranking Member, 
             Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
    Thank you, Chairman Webster, for calling today's hearing. The U.S. 
Coast Guard and the civilian U.S. merchant marine are facing a unique 
challenge associated with the booming economy and historically low 
unemployment rates--they're having a hard time attracting new 
individuals to service.
    The Coast Guard often prides itself on its ability to do more with 
less.
    They're a fraction of the size and budget of the other services and 
yet they have a significantly wider mission set. Being ``Semper 
Paratus,'' with insufficient resources is not sustainable.
    The Coast Guard is currently operating with a shortfall of more 
than 4,500 servicemembers. To address this problem, the Service is 
rethinking recruiting by hiring more recruiters, expanding the JROTC 
program, providing referral incentives, and deploying targeted 
advertising.
    The Coast Guard offers unique experiences and opportunities to its 
servicemembers. During an average day, the Coast Guard will conduct 109 
search-and-rescues, launch 164 aircraft missions, seize 475 pounds of 
illegal drugs, respond to 20 oil or hazardous chemical spills and 
service 135 aids to navigation. A career in the Coast Guard is one to 
be proud of.
    I'm confident that the Coast Guard can and will do a better job of 
conveying the many opportunities it offers. But the Coast Guard needs 
our help ensuring robust support for Coasties as they conduct those 
missions.
    Without affordable housing, Coasties are required to commute hours 
to work. Without medical access, Coasties go without health care. 
Without modern facilities and technology, Coasties work in substandard 
conditions. Without adequate childcare, parents will simply leave the 
service.
    I applaud Admiral Fagan for her refreshing approach exemplified by 
the slogan ``tomorrow will look different, and so will we.'' If the 
Coast Guard does not rethink its way of doing business, recruitment and 
retention will only get harder.
    Quality of life is a recruitment and retention issue. While it is 
incumbent on the Coast Guard to tell us what they need, Congress needs 
to better support the women and men who serve.
    The challenges facing the U.S. merchant marine are similar to that 
of the Coast Guard. As workers increasingly value flexibility, a 
maritime career, which often entails living on a ship for several 
months, is less attractive. But, also like the Coast Guard, it's an 
industry that offers the opportunity to contribute to society in a 
valuable way.
    U.S. merchant mariners deliver the majority of defense materials 
overseas, ensure the delivery of U.S. food-aid and protect our domestic 
economic security. Further, a career at sea allows women and men to see 
the world.
    To attract more mariners to the industry, Congress and the 
Administration must ensure stable employment opportunities. That means 
full and consistent funding for the Maritime Security Program and the 
Tanker Security Program. That means ensuring full compliance with cargo 
preference laws. That means sending a strong message that the Jones Act 
will not be eroded or repealed.
    In the recently reported Coast Guard Authorization Act, I'm glad 
that this committee included several provisions aimed at increasing the 
pool of merchant mariners. One of those provisions would better align 
licensing requirements with international standards to remove a burden 
upon the mariner, while maintaining safety. Another would fix an 
anomaly in the law to allow people from American Samoa to enter the 
industry.
    I look forward to working with my colleagues to ensure that these 
provisions become law. I also look forward to hearing from our 
witnesses about other ways to attract and retain merchant mariners.
    Thank you and I yield back.

    Mr. Webster of Florida. Thank you.
    I now recognize the ranking member, Mr. Carbajal, for 5 
minutes.

  OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. SALUD O. CARBAJAL OF CALIFORNIA, 
   RANKING MEMBER, SUBCOMMITTEE ON COAST GUARD AND MARITIME 
                         TRANSPORTATION

    Mr. Carbajal. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for calling this 
important hearing to review recruiting issues in both the Coast 
Guard and the merchant marine.
    The Coast Guard is facing a recruiting deficit of over 
4,800 Active Duty personnel. Every sector of the economy is 
facing recruiting challenges, and the military is no different.
    As views towards work have changed over the past years, 
many industries are facing labor shortages as workers are 
looking for a job that not only values them as an employee, but 
also offers an experience that provides value in return.
    Servicemembers have always been at the core of the Service, 
and without them, mission success would not be possible. The 
Coast Guard understands this. In 2021, 100 percent of Coasties 
who were married to other Coasties were stationed together. 
This is one of the many reasons that it has the highest 
retention rate among military services.
    Despite the critical role that the Coast Guard plays in our 
national security, economy, and ensuring the safety of lives at 
sea, the Coast Guard is the second smallest branch of the 
military, and chronic disinvestment in the Coast Guard has 
forced them to do more with less.
    Chronic underinvestment has resulted in reduced services 
for Coasties and their families, including housing, healthcare, 
and childcare. We must do more to improve the lives of these 
hard-working individuals by providing the quality care they 
deserve. By doing so, recruitment will no doubt improve.
    Recruiting and retaining personnel is imperative for the 
success of the Coast Guard, as it is in all branches of the 
military. I am interested to hear today about the Coast Guard's 
plans to recruit and retain personnel, with a particular focus 
on diversity and inclusion, in the coming years.
    Despite the Coast Guard's efforts to improve representation 
of women and minorities within its workforce, leadership in the 
Service still struggles to reflect the demographics of our 
Nation. The Coast Guard is the least diverse branch of the 
military. We must build on the efforts being made to recruit 
and retain diverse personnel.
    During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Coast Guard adapted by 
offering increased flexibility and remote working options. Many 
employees continue to want this flexibility moving forward, and 
it will be important to carefully consider how to recruit and 
retain diverse personnel in a modern work environment.
    Access to childcare and family resources is crucial for 
long-term retention of personnel and quality of life for both 
servicemembers and their families. Providing adequate childcare 
and medical services is especially important in retaining 
female personnel, who face unique barriers to promotional 
opportunities.
    The Coast Guard oversees the credentialing of mariners, and 
the antiquated paper system used to process merchant mariner 
credentials results in delays. It is unreasonable that a 
mariner should wait months while the Coast Guard processes a 
credential. While we do not know the exact mariner shortage 
because the Coast Guard's credentialing system is so out of 
date, it is estimated that the industry would need at least 
1,000 more mariners to fulfill sealift requirements.
    Not only must we improve mariner recruiting, but we too 
must ensure that this industry is inclusive and reflects the 
demographics of our country.
    Lastly, I want to highlight the forceful action the Service 
has taken to address sexual assault and sexual harassment. Make 
no mistake, though: This continues to be a pervasive problem 
throughout the maritime industry, and it is affecting 
recruiting. We must hold the Coast Guard accountable to ensure 
accusations are followed by investigations and, in cases where 
appropriate, convictions. If the industry is not perceived as 
safe, then how can we expect prospective mariners to want to 
join?
    We want to do better recruiting a diverse workforce for 
both the Coast Guard and merchant marine, and Congress plays an 
important role in that. I look forward to hearing from our 
panel today on how we can work together to solve these 
challenges.
    And before I close, I would like to take a moment to 
recognize the work of one Coastie in particular. CheriAnn 
Thompson has been a Coast Guard fellow for the committee for 
the past 2 years and completes her service on Friday. Her 
contributions to two Coast Guard bills have resulted in better 
policy for the Service and maritime industry.
    Thank you, CheriAnn, and best of luck in Miami.
    [Applause.]
    Mr. Carbajal. Secondly, I would like to also recognize 
Captain Dorothy Hernaez, who is right here as well. She has 
served as a liaison to the House. She has done an incredible 
job, and I wish her the best in her future work that I 
understand is going to be pretty close by.
    I have had the pleasure of traveling with Dorothy in the 
Service, and she is just a remarkable individual, and I want to 
recognize--plus, she loves wine from my region.
    Congratulations on your next step, Dorothy.
    [Mr. Carbajal's prepared statement follows:]

                                 
  Prepared Statement of Hon. Salud O. Carbajal of California, Ranking 
    Member, Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation
    Thank you, Chair Webster, for calling this important hearing to 
review recruiting issues in both the Coast Guard and the merchant 
marine.
    The Coast Guard is facing a recruiting deficit of over 4,800 
active-duty personnel. Every sector of the economy is facing recruiting 
challenges and the military is no different. As views toward work have 
changed over the past few years, many industries are facing labor 
shortages as workers are looking for a job that not only values them as 
an employee but offers an experience that provides value in return.
    Servicemembers have always been at the core of the Service and, 
without them, mission success would not be possible. The Coast Guard 
understands this. In 2021, 100 percent of Coasties who were married to 
other Coasties were stationed together. This is one of many reasons the 
Coast Guard has the highest retention rate among military services.
    Despite the critical role the Coast Guard plays in our national 
security, economy, and ensuring the safety of lives at sea, the Coast 
Guard is the second smallest branch of the military and chronic 
disinvestment in the Coast Guard has forced them to do more with less.
    Chronic underinvestment has resulted in reduced services for 
Coasties and their families, including in housing, healthcare, and 
childcare. We must do more to improve the lives of these hard-working 
individuals by providing the quality care they deserve. By doing so, 
recruitment will improve.
    Recruiting and retaining personnel is imperative for the success of 
the Coast Guard, as it is in all branches of the military. I'm 
interested to hear about the Coast Guard's plans to recruit and retain 
personnel, with a particular focus on diversity and inclusion, in the 
coming years.
    Despite the Coast Guard's efforts to improve representation of 
women and minorities within its workforce, leadership in the Service 
still struggles to reflect the demographics of the nation. The Coast 
Guard is the least diverse branch of the military. We must build on the 
efforts being made to recruit and retain diverse personnel.
    During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Coast Guard adapted by offering 
increased flexibility and remote work options. Many employees continue 
to want this flexibility moving forward, and it will be important to 
carefully consider how to recruit and retain diverse personnel in a 
modern work environment.
    Access to childcare and family resources is crucial for long-term 
retention of personnel and quality of life for both service members and 
their families. Providing adequate childcare and medical services is 
especially important in retaining female personnel, who face unique 
barriers to promotional opportunities.
    The Coast Guard oversees the credentialing of mariners. The 
antiquated paper systems used to process merchant mariner credentials 
results in delays. It is unreasonable that a mariner should wait months 
while the Coast Guard processes a credential.
    While we do not know the exact mariner shortage because the Coast 
Guard's credentialing system is so out of date, it is estimated that 
the industry would need at least 1,000 more mariners to fulfil sealift 
requirements.
    Not only must we improve mariner recruiting, but we too must ensure 
that this industry is inclusive and reflects the demographics of the 
country.
    Lastly, I want to highlight the forceful action the Service has 
taken to address sexual assault and sexual harassment. Make no mistake 
though, this continues to be a pervasive problem throughout the 
maritime industry, and it is affecting recruiting. We must hold the 
Coast Guard accountable to ensure accusations are followed by 
investigations and convictions. If industry is not perceived as safe, 
then how can we expect prospective mariners to want to join?
    We can do better recruiting a diverse workforce for both the Coast 
Guard and the merchant marine and Congress plays an important role. I 
look forward to hearing from our panel today on how we can work 
together to solve these challenges.

    Mr. Carbajal. Finally, I ask unanimous consent to insert 
into the record a statement on behalf of maritime labor.
    Mr. Webster of Florida. Thank you very much.
    Mr. Carbajal. Can we have that ``without objection,'' Mr. 
Chair?
    Mr. Webster of Florida. Oh, yes. Maybe.
    Mr. Carbajal. I am just checking. Just checking.
    Mr. Webster of Florida. Without objection.
    Mr. Carbajal. Thank you.
    [The information follows:]

                                 
 Statement from American Maritime Officers; International Organization 
 of Masters, Mates & Pilots; Marine Engineers' Beneficial Association; 
 Marine Firemen's Union; Maritime Trades Department, AFL-CIO; Sailors' 
Union of the Pacific; Seafarers International Union; and Transportation 
 Trades Department, AFL-CIO, Submitted for the Record by Hon. Salud O. 
                                Carbajal
    Chairman Webster, Ranking Member Carbajal and Members of the 
Subcommittee:
    We submit this statement on behalf of the American Maritime 
Officers, International Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots, Marine 
Engineers' Beneficial Association, Marine Firemen's Union, Maritime 
Trades Department, AFL-CIO, Seafarers International Union, Sailors' 
Union of the Pacific, and Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO in 
conjunction with the Subcommittee's hearing on ``Assessing the Shortage 
of United States Mariners.'' We ask that our statement be included in 
the hearing record. Together, our maritime labor unions represent the 
vast majority of United States Coast Guard (USCG) licensed and 
unlicensed American maritime personnel who work aboard commercial 
vessels of all types and who are among the most highly trained and 
qualified mariners in the worldwide maritime industry.
    Our unions and the licensed and unlicensed American merchant 
mariners we represent have never turned away from the challenges that 
must be faced to preserve the democratic way of life at home and 
overseas. As they did at the founding of our nation, during World War 
II and in every conflict before and since, the men and women of the 
United States-flag merchant marine stand ready to sail into harm's way 
whenever and wherever needed by our country to enhance America's 
military and economic interests and to support and supply our armed 
forces deployed overseas.
    It is critically important that our government and the American 
people understand that without the U.S.-flag vessels and U.S. citizen 
licensed and unlicensed merchant mariners ready and available to 
provide the commercial sealift readiness capability needed by the 
Department of Defense, our nation would be forced to entrust the 
support, supply, and security of American forces deployed overseas to 
foreign flag vessels and foreign crews who may not support U.S. defense 
operations and objectives. It goes without saying that doing so would 
jeopardize the lives of American servicewomen and men who will no 
longer be guaranteed the supplies and equipment they need to do their 
job in support of our country.
    As stated by Maritime Administrator Admiral Ann Phillips in 2022: 
``As a retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral with more than 30 years of 
service, I know the critical importance of our merchant marine to our 
national defense as well as to our economy. Particularly in a contested 
environment, it is American mariners who will answer the call--as they 
always have--to move the supplies we need to defeat any adversary.''
    Similarly, then-United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) 
Commander General Stephen Lyons stated in November 2020, ``With 85 
percent of our forces based in the continental United States, nearly 90 
percent of our military equipment is expected to deploy via sealift in 
a major conflict. In order to deploy those forces, we require safe, 
reliable and ready U.S.-flagged vessels [and], mariners to crew those 
ships . . .''
    It is therefore imperative that the downward trend in the number of 
vessels operating under the U.S.-flag must be stopped and reversed, and 
the American maritime manpower shortage must be addressed and resolved. 
Simply put, the current manpower shortage is a national security 
threat, and it is clear that the Department of Defense cannot do its 
job if private industry is unable to provide the civilian American 
merchant mariners DOD needs. This requires strong, positive action by 
the Congress and the Administration to support and fund existing 
programs that support the operation of U.S.-flag vessels, including the 
Maritime Security Program, the Tanker Security Program, and the Jones 
Act; to eliminate statutory and regulatory impediments to the growth of 
the maritime manpower pool; and to propose and implement innovative and 
effective programs and policies that will increase the number of 
commercially viable U.S.-flag vessels, increase the number of American 
maritime jobs, and increase the amount of America's foreign trade 
carried aboard U.S.-flag ships. Simply put, more cargo means more U.S.-
flag ships, and more U.S.-flag ships means more American mariners!
    Consequently, we recommend the following so that we can begin to 
achieve these objectives:
    First, we encourage Congress and the Administration to develop a 
realistic maritime strategy that includes at its core a national cargo 
policy that increases the percentage of America's foreign trade carried 
aboard U.S.-flag commercial vessels and ensures that American mariners 
have jobs during peacetime. The treatment of U.S.-flag vessel 
operations and American mariners under the tax code should encourage 
rather than discourage the utilization of U.S.-flag vessels and 
American mariners, and bilateral and multilateral trade agreements 
should reflect the strategic importance to our nation of a stronger, 
more active U.S.-flag fleet in the carriage of America's exports and 
imports. Today, with the ongoing efforts by the Chinese Communist Party 
to secure domination over the world's oceans and international trade as 
well as the proliferation of state-owned and controlled and foreign 
flag of convenience vessel operations, including partial ownership in 
many security sensitive foreign ports, we have seen the U.S.-flag share 
of America's foreign trade fall to less than 2 percent. This situation 
threatens our security and threatens our economy, as China will only 
further increase its control over what cargoes move and at what cost 
unless we bolster our own U.S.-flag fleet and regain control over the 
carriage of our foreign trade.
    Secondly, it is equally important that Congress continue to provide 
the Maritime Administration with the authority it needs to fully 
enforce and implement the nation's U.S.-flag cargo preference shipping 
requirements. All too often, Federal agencies and departments 
unilaterally and at times with no explanation take advantage of so-
called ``notwithstanding'' clauses in the law or otherwise simply 
ignore the spirit and the letter of the law in order to waive the U.S.-
flag shipping requirements and ship greater and greater shares of 
taxpayer financed government cargoes on foreign flag, foreign crewed 
vessels.
    We greatly appreciate the steps this Subcommittee and Committee 
have taken as well as the recent efforts of Maritime Administrator 
Admiral Ann Phillips and her staff to achieve greater compliance by all 
Federal agencies with cargo preference. However, it is clear to us that 
further action is necessary, and we encourage Congress to restore the 
U.S.-flag requirements for food aid cargoes to 75 percent. In fact, 
since U.S.-flag cargo preference shipping requirements for food aid 
cargoes were arbitrarily slashed from 75% to 50% in 2012, the U.S.-flag 
fleet has plummeted by 26% according to the Maritime Administration--
more than triple the impact initially forecast--contributing to the 
current maritime manpower shortage which has been exacerbated by the 
direct and indirect impacts of the COVID 19 pandemic on our industry. 
Similarly, we recommend Congress increase the U.S.-flag requirements 
for all other government-generated civilian cargoes to 100 percent, the 
same percentage that covers the shipment of defense cargoes, with U.S.-
flag carriage dependent, as it is today, on the availability of U.S.-
flag vessels at fair and reasonable rates. Requiring 100 percent would 
greatly decrease the gamesmanship of U.S. government agencies 
intentionally violating cargo preference statutes, and will make Marad 
enforcement that much easier.
    We also urge Congress to eliminate those provisions in the law that 
enable Federal agencies and departments to bypass the authority of the 
Maritime Administration to determine if and when cargo preference 
applies and whether U.S.-flag vessels are available at fair and 
reasonable rates to transport the cargo. Until and unless all such 
authority is vested exclusively in the Maritime Administration, U.S.-
flag vessels will continue to lose cargo carrying opportunities and 
American mariners will continue to be denied employment opportunities.
    Thirdly, one of the most positive steps taken by Congress over the 
past few years has been the authorization of a new Tanker Security 
Program modeled after the highly successful Maritime Security Program. 
In fact, this new program has the potential of adding, over the next 
year or so, upwards of twenty vessels to the U.S.-flag fleet, thereby 
helping to address the maritime manpower shortage as new job 
opportunities for American mariners are made available aboard these 
vessels. However, an element unique to the tanker industry, commonly 
referred to as the ``Matrix Requirements'', mandates levels of officer 
experience for the U.S. flag tankers engaged in transporting fuels 
internationally. These compliance rules stipulate that certain mariners 
must have minimum (1) employment time with a particular operator, (2) 
time serving on a particular vessel class, and (3) time serving in 
rank. Failure to comply with the Matrix Requirements can lead to 
rejection of a vessel for service, severe limitations on the vessel's 
ability to trade internationally, and consequential financial losses.
    We are therefore urging Congress and the Administration to assist 
the industry in meeting these unique requirements by allowing a portion 
of previously appropriated unobligated funds for the Tanker Security 
Program to be used for mariner training. More specifically, we ask 
Congress to allow the Maritime Administration to provide up to $2.5 
million of funding to each of the initial 10 vessels (i.e., $25 
million) approved to enter the TSP in order to increase the number of 
mariners who possess the necessary tanker specific qualifications to 
meet the Matrix Requirements.
    We also believe there are steps that Congress and the 
Administration can and should take to reduce and eliminate financial 
and other impediments to the recruitment and availability of mariners. 
For example:
      Congress should increase the appropriation for fuel 
funding for training vessels operated by State Maritime Academies in 
order to reduce the cost to students at the Academies for summer sea 
terms. This action can and should result in an increase in enrollment 
in training sea terms, thereby helping to grow the qualified maritime 
manpower pool. Currently, the cost to a student to sail on a training 
ship can exceed $13,500 per year, with the majority of the sea terms 
cost attributable to fuel. Increasing Federal fuel funding would reduce 
the cost of training sea terms, thereby encouraging greater enrollment. 
Congress should also allow fuel subsidies to be used for State Maritime 
Academy owned and leased vessels that are used to provide cadets with 
the option of obtaining the Dedicated Duty Engineer and Mate of Towing 
(TOAR) license endorsements.
      We also believe Congress should increase the maximum 
Student Incentive Payment from $32,000 to $64,000 in order to increase 
interest and participation in the USN Strategic Sealift Midshipman 
Program among those attending a State Maritime Academy. This in turn 
will increase the number of State Maritime Academy graduates who have 
an obligation to sail on their license after graduation.
      We urge Congress to include U.S. merchant mariners 
sailing aboard U.S.-flag commercial vessels for at least 180 days per 
calendar year among those eligible for Public Service Loan forgiveness. 
Public Service Loan Forgiveness encourages individuals to enter and 
continue in full time public service employment by forgiving the 
remaining balance of their direct loans after satisfying public service 
and loan repayment requirements, forgiving the remaining balance of the 
loan after the individual has made 120 qualifying monthly payments. 
This program is currently available to U.S. military members and should 
be similarly available to those working as a merchant mariner as part 
of our nation's ``fourth arm of defense.''
      Finally, we strongly support provisions included by the 
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in H.R. 2741, the 
bipartisan Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2023. Reducing the time 
requirement for Able Seaman and authorizing additional funding for the 
Coast Guard to modernize its credentialing system are just two of the 
provisions that can and should help alleviate impediments to the 
efficient and timely availability of American mariners.

    In conclusion, it is important to emphasize that a strong, viable, 
privately-owned United States-flag maritime industry serves as a 
critical line of defense against the total domination of the world's 
oceans and the carriage of international trade by those nations that do 
not adhere to our commitment to fair trade and open seas. From the 
founding of our Nation to today, American merchant mariners have served 
with distinction and courage, never hesitating to sail into war zones 
to supply and support American troops deployed anywhere in the world, 
and too often sacrificing their own lives for our protection. We again 
submit that immediate and innovative action is necessary to increase 
the amount of cargo carried by U.S.-flag vessels, to increase the size 
of the commercially viable, militarily useful U.S.-flag fleet, and to 
increase the maritime manpower pool ready and available to meet our 
nation's economic and national security requirements.
    Thank you for the opportunity to submit this statement. We stand 
ready to provide whatever additional information you may require and to 
work with you and your colleagues to strengthen and grow our U.S.-flag 
merchant marine and to alleviate the maritime manpower shortage.

    Mr. Webster of Florida. Once again I would like to welcome 
our witnesses--I'm glad for them to be here today--and briefly 
explain our little light system on the clock on the side there. 
Green is go, yellow is you are almost out of time, and red 
means stop.
    I would like unanimous consent that the witnesses' full 
statements be included in the record.
    Without objection, show that ordered.
    As your testimony has been made part of the record, the 
committee asks that you limit your remarks to 5 minutes.
    With that, Vice Admiral Thomas, you are recognized for 5 
minutes.

TESTIMONY OF VICE ADMIRAL PAUL F. THOMAS, DEPUTY COMMANDANT FOR 
   MISSION SUPPORT, U.S. COAST GUARD; ANN C. PHILLIPS, REAR 
    ADMIRAL, U.S. NAVY (RET.), AND ADMINISTRATOR, MARITIME 
 ADMINISTRATION; HEATHER MacLEOD, DIRECTOR, HOMELAND SECURITY 
AND JUSTICE, U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE; AND BETH J. 
        ASCH, Ph.D., SENIOR ECONOMIST, RAND CORPORATION

TESTIMONY OF VICE ADMIRAL PAUL F. THOMAS, DEPUTY COMMANDANT FOR 
               MISSION SUPPORT, U.S. COAST GUARD

    Admiral Thomas. Well, thank you. And good morning, Chairman 
Webster, Ranking Member Carbajal, Congressman Larsen, and 
distinguished members of the committee. I truly do appreciate 
the opportunity to testify today on this very important topic.
    And, Congressman Carbajal, thank you for recognizing our 
outstanding Coast Guard folks, because these two are just 
representative of our entire Service.
    As you all know, the U.S. Coast Guard is the world's 
premier multimission maritime Service, and we are responsible 
for safety, security, and stewardship in the maritime domain.
    Our 57,000 Active Duty, Reserve, and civilian personnel, 
supported by 21,000 auxiliary volunteers, conduct vital 
homeland security, safety, and defense missions around the 
globe every hour of every day.
    A Coast Guard that is always ready to take on current 
challenges of the Nation must attract, recruit, and retain 
talented people, the very best our Nation has to offer. 
Recruiting difficulties for all the services began prior to the 
COVID-19 pandemic and then worsened, resulting in a recruiting 
environment today that is significantly more complicated and 
challenging than it ever has been.
    For the past 4 years, the Coast Guard has not met its 
recruiting goal, and this year will be no different. The 
current Coast Guard workforce shortage is being mitigated in 
the short term, but in the long term, this shortage threatens 
the Service's ability to conduct missions which are vital to 
our Nation.
    The Coast Guard is bolstering recruiting efforts to 
generate more leads, improve the recruiting process, and 
increase recruiting capacity and performance. We are updating 
materials and marketing efforts to ensure the Service's brand 
resonates with young people. We have six active Junior Reserve 
Officers' Training Corps, JROTC, programs, and we will have 
four more on line by the start of the 2023 academic year.
    We are opening new recruiting offices, deploying individual 
recruiters to key locations, modernizing the recruiting 
process, adopting new technology and solutions, and recruiting 
in ways and in places we never have before.
    We are also focused on removing or reducing barriers to 
service by aligning our medical standards with those of the 
Department of Defense; increasing age limits; reducing family-
size limitations, opening paths for single parents; providing 
English-as-a-second-language and personal resilience training; 
and providing an easier pathway to service and to citizenship 
for legal permanent residents.
    While recruiting our workforce is critically important, 
retaining our workforce is equally so, and it requires at least 
as much effort and investment. Under the direction of our 
Commandant, the Coast Guard is taking action to ensure our 
workforce policies, processes, and infrastructure provide 
better flexibility, transparency, predictability, and support 
to our members and their families. We must make it easier to 
serve and to continue to serve for a full career.
    And as you have already noted, providing support to our 
workforce and their families in the form of pay and benefits, 
housing, healthcare, and child services is essential to 
retaining talent. And we are grateful to the Congress and to 
this committee, in particular, for your support in this regard, 
but we will need more support.
    Housing, healthcare, and childcare are challenges around 
the Nation and for all the services, but they are particularly 
challenging for our Coast Guard members because we are not a 
garrisoned force. We live in the communities we serve. And that 
is often in remote coastal areas with few support services and 
a disproportionately high cost of living.
    Like the Coast Guard, the U.S. maritime industry faces an 
ongoing workforce shortage. Our merchant marine and 
credentialed mariners are vital to America's economic 
prosperity and national security, so, the Coast Guard is 
focused on doing what we can do to help mitigate that shortage.
    We have taken steps to modernize our credentialing process 
to eliminate duplication of effort and improve flexibility. We 
have also improved the ability of members of the Armed Forces 
to seek and obtain a credential through the Military to Mariner 
program, and as a result of those efforts, the number of 
credentialed applicants with military service has doubled since 
2016.
    We know that in order to recruit and retain the 
professional mariner workforce this Nation needs, their work 
environment must be free from fear and harassment, and the 
Coast Guard is dedicated to doing our part.
    With the help of Congress, we continue to overhaul the 
reporting and review process for incidents of sexual misconduct 
and harassment in the merchant fleet by removing barriers to 
reporting, utilizing trained criminal investigators to respond 
to reports, enhancing background screening, and ensuring 
accountability through our Service's suspension and revocation 
authorities.
    Chairman Webster, Ranking Member Carbajal, distinguished 
committee members, it is truly a privilege to appear before you 
today. I thank you for this opportunity, and I look forward to 
our discussion.
    [Admiral Thomas' prepared statement follows:]

                                 
 Prepared Statement of Vice Admiral Paul F. Thomas, Deputy Commandant 
                 for Mission Support, U.S. Coast Guard
                              Introduction
    Chairman Webster, Ranking Member Carbajal, and distinguished 
members of the subcommittee, I appreciate the opportunity to testify 
today and thank you for your enduring support of the United States 
Coast Guard.
    The U.S. Coast Guard is the world's premier, multi-mission, 
maritime service responsible for the safety, security, and stewardship 
of the maritime domain. The Service's 57,000 active duty, reserve, and 
civilian personnel, supported by 21,000 Auxiliary volunteers, conduct 
vital homeland security and defense missions around the globe on a 24/7 
basis 365 days a year. The Coast Guard's workforce is vital to 
maintaining a fully operational service and our status as the world's 
best Coast Guard depends on the ability to attract, recruit, and retain 
talented people. Unfortunately, the Coast Guard has been unable to meet 
its recruiting goals for the past four years and is unlikely to meet 
targeted goals again this year. Recruiting difficulties began prior to 
the COVID-19 pandemic and then worsened, resulting in a recruiting 
environment today that is significantly more complicated than it was 
before the pandemic.
    The current Coast Guard workforce shortage threatens the Service's 
ability to conduct missions which are vital to national security and 
prosperity. America's economic prosperity requires the safe, secure, 
and efficient flow of cargo through the Marine Transportation System 
(MTS), which includes over 360 ports and more than 25,000 miles of 
river and coastal waterways that serve as a gateway for 90 percent of 
all overseas trade.
    The Coast Guard's workforce supports seamless transportation 
operations through the nation's waterways, facilitating $5.4 trillion 
of economic activity each year \1\ and supporting over 30 million 
American jobs.\2\ The Coast Guard's partners in the U.S. Merchant 
Marine are another essential part of this economic flow.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ ``Ports' Value to the U.S. Economy: Exports, Jobs & Economic 
Growth.'' American Association of Port Authorities, http://www.aapa-
ports.org/advocating/content.aspx?ItemNumber=21150. Accessed May 8, 
2023.
    \2\ Fact Sheet: Biden-Harris Administration Announces Historic 
Investment to America's Port and Waterway Infrastructure. The White 
House. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/
2022/01/19/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-announces-historic-
investment-to-americas-port-and-waterway-infrastructure/. Accessed May 
8, 2023.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Unfortunately, like the Coast Guard, the U.S. maritime industry 
faces an ongoing shortage of credentialed mariners at all levels. 
Although the Coast Guard is limited in its ability to address many of 
the reasons for the mariner shortage, the Service is the primary 
regulatory agency for the U.S. Merchant Marine and must be attentive 
and adaptive to the maritime industry's changing needs and dynamic 
challenges. Without an appropriate number of qualified U.S. mariners to 
operate vessels, our ports will not flourish, essential cargos will not 
reach their destinations, and the Nation's sealift capability is at 
risk. The Coast Guard is committed to pursuing initiatives which 
support a robust maritime industry and ensure a safe, secure, and 
economically viable MTS.
    Accessing a pipeline of high-quality and motivated Americans to 
serve in the Coast Guard and U.S. Merchant Marine is essential to 
maintain the nation's economic prosperity and national security.
                               Challenges
    Like many employers, the Coast Guard is facing unprecedented 
workforce shortages. Competition for talent in today's economy is 
fierce.
    The Coast Guard is currently 10 percent below our authorized 
position strength within the enlisted workforce and projections show 
this shortage will grow to nearly 13 percent by the end of the fiscal 
year (FY). While mission execution both at home and abroad continues, 
our workforce is feeling the strain.
    The low unemployment rate tightens competition in the labor market 
and negatively impacts military recruiting. Non-military employers can 
provide more attractive pay, college tuition assistance, workplace 
flexibility, expanded healthcare services, lucrative retirement 
options, and childcare benefits. Further exacerbating military 
recruiting challenges are historically low rates of eligibility and 
lack of understanding of military service. Medical history is the 
largest category limiting eligibility, but cultural shifts around drug 
use and body modifications, criminal records, and indebtedness also 
contribute to lower eligibility levels. Currently over 75 percent of 17 
to 21-year-old Americans are ineligible for military service without a 
waiver (Department of Defense (DoD) 2020 Qualified Military Available 
Study). A large portion of those who are eligible seek higher education 
and DoD's recent Joint Advertising Market Research and Studies research 
indicates only 9 percent of Generation Z's adults have a propensity to 
serve, the lowest it has been in over a decade.
    The COVID-19 pandemic restricted recruiting, hiring, and 
onboarding, in nearly all industries, including the Coast Guard. The 
Service's highly technical workforce depends on in-person training and 
mission execution. The challenges presented by the pandemic slowed 
recruiting and onboarding, and the current conditions described above 
make it difficult to rebuild recruiting momentum.
                 Actions Taken--Coast Guard Recruiting
    In May 2022, the Coast Guard established an Incident Management 
Team (IMT) to focus Service-wide resources on recruiting. The IMT is 
working with the Coast Guard Recruiting Command (CGRC) on three lines 
of effort to bolster recruiting efforts: generate more leads, improve 
the recruiting process, and increase recruiting capacity and 
performance.
    To generate more leads the Coast Guard must identify and deliver 
more candidates to the Service's recruiters. As a part of that effort, 
the Service upgraded messaging and recruiting logos to ensure the Coast 
Guard brand resonates with Generation Z and is surging marketing 
efforts into non-traditional media spaces, delivering targeted content 
across the web, social media, and streaming platforms where the target 
audience spends time.
    To improve the recruiting process, we are focused on removing 
barriers to entry, as well as adopting an all-digital capable 
recruiting process. In November 2022, the Coast Guard changed accession 
standards, expanding, and editing the standards of maximum age, debt-
to-income ratio, and dependency status. The Service also adopted DoD 
medical standards as it conducts reviews of over 1,600 medical waivers 
each year. To date in 2023, approximately 70 percent of waiver packages 
have been approved. The CGRC also created a digital application to 
modernize the recruiting process. This tool will include digital forms 
and signatures, and has the capacity to track application package 
details, improving transparency and management of Coast Guard 
applications.
    To increase the Coast Guard's recruiting capacity and performance, 
we are opening additional recruiting offices and placing independent 
duty recruiters in locations where data suggests there is a high 
propensity to serve. Virtual recruiters and a call center further our 
capability to reach and recruit individuals across the country, 
particularly those not located near a physical recruiting office. To 
modernize the performance of recruiters across the country, the CGRC 
Recruiter Selection Panel was established with an updated evaluation 
process to better identify servicemembers with the highest potential to 
succeed as a recruiter. The new evaluation criteria will evaluate 
members applying this summer and fall for placement in summer 2024. 
Further, the Coast Guard is working to establish additional training 
resources and to provide incentive pay to recruiters like other Armed 
Services. These efforts are increasing the recruiting footprint across 
the nation efficiently and effectively, maximizing exposure of the 
Service and contact with individuals showing a propensity toward 
service.
                        Actions Taken--Retention
    Retention of members of the Coast Guard is also essential to 
continue to conduct and support missions around the globe. Under the 
direction of the Commandant, the Coast Guard is taking action to 
transform its talent management system and ensure there are 
opportunities for flexible assignments, advancements, workplaces, and 
careers. These policy changes enable the workforce to serve our nation 
to their best potential, while balancing other needs and demands on 
their lives.
    Providing key support services to the workforce and their 
families--in the form of housing, healthcare, and childcare services--
is essential to reducing personnel loss. The Coast Guard has enhanced 
our workforce's quality of life through improved support programs. We 
have modified assignment policies to better facilitate the co-location 
of dual military families, enhanced our parental leave policy, and 
expanded the childcare fee assistance subsidy program. The Service also 
continues to improve healthcare services and access to care for our 
workforce and their families by expanding access to telehealth 
services, offering online appointment scheduling, migrating to 
electronic health records, and offering expansions to key health 
services such as physical therapy and behavioral health services.
    Finally, the Coast Guard's Workforce Planning Teams (WPTs) monitor 
and evaluate the total active duty, reserve, and civilian workforce to 
identifying trends, assessing gaps, and providing recommendations for 
policy modifications, as well as monetary and non-monetary 
interventions to ensure the Coast Guard is best positioned to meet 
future needs. The WPTs carefully consider organizational and 
programmatic equities and risks to optimize service readiness. To 
maintain a competitive edge, the Coast Guard must continue 
modernization efforts for personnel management and family support 
services.
                 Actions Taken--Merchant Marine Support
    The maritime industry and MTS connect America's consumers, 
producers, manufacturers, and farmers to domestic and global markets. 
Similarly, our national security depends on the health and reliability 
of the MTS and the supporting maritime industry. The majority of U.S. 
military equipment is loaded in U.S. ports and delivered to theater on 
Coast Guard-inspected merchant vessels that are manned by credentialed 
civilian merchant mariners.
    U.S. Merchant Mariners are essential to the dynamic operation of 
the MTS, our economic prosperity, and our national security. The Coast 
Guard develops standards for safe, secure, and environmentally sound 
operations in the MTS, including the credentialing of U.S. Merchant 
Mariners. There are currently 198,000 credentialed U.S. mariners, and 
the Coast Guard issues approximately 55,000 merchant mariner 
credentials (MMCs) and 60,000 mariner medical certificates annually. 
Although the Coast Guard is limited in its ability to address many of 
the reasons for the mariner shortage, the Coast Guard continues to work 
on a number of long- and short-term initiatives to support mariners.
    Improvements to the processing of credentials, as well as reviewing 
credentialing regulations and policies to eliminate duplication and 
provide flexibility in meeting the requirements for an MMC, are primary 
focuses for the Coast Guard. The Service is working to modernize the 
mariner credentialing system including the development of information 
technology infrastructure to replace the aging and inefficient Merchant 
Mariner Licensing Documentation (MMLD) database used to manage mariner 
information and issue MMCs to qualified mariners.
    Because the Coast Guard believes that every mariner has a right to 
work in an environment free from fear and harassment, the Service has 
taken several steps to prevent and eradicate bullying, harassment, and 
assault from the Merchant Marine. Workplace violence and harassment, 
including sexual assault and sexual harassment, have negative effects 
on a workforce, threaten safety of life at sea, and challenge the 
continued maritime excellence of our nation.
    Removing barriers to reporting; standardizing intake reports; using 
trained agents to review and investigate potential criminal misconduct; 
launching education and outreach campaigns; engaging experts from 
Federal Advisory Committees (FACAs); enhancing background screening of 
applicants for a MMC; and promulgating updated suspension and 
revocation (S&R) policies are a few actions the Service has taken. The 
Coast Guard is also working to implement the provisions of the James M. 
Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2023 that expand the 
Coast Guard's authority to respond to and handle allegations of sexual 
misconduct in the maritime industry.
    Finally, the Coast Guard continues to work to improve the ability 
of members of the uniformed services to obtain an MMC. For over 20 
years the Coast Guard has been actively working with FACAs to identify 
pathways for utilizing Military Education, Training, and Assessments to 
qualify for Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping 
(STCW) and national MMC endorsements. The Coast Guard has approved 110 
courses which provide military applicants credit for MMC requirements 
through the training they have received while on active duty. A policy 
implementing a waiver of MMC fees for members of the uniformed services 
was published in May 2022. Since then, the Coast Guard has waived 4,302 
fees for 1,580 applicants of the uniformed services and. In addition, 
in September 2020, the Coast Guard published a Final Rule extending the 
period to meet recent sea service requirements for an MMC from five to 
seven years for personnel with service on vessels of the uniformed 
services. As a result of these efforts, the number of MMC applicants 
with military service has doubled since 2016.
                               Conclusion
    The U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Merchant Marine provide essential 
services that benefit the American public, the global economy, and 
national security. The challenges of recruiting and retaining a Coast 
Guard workforce, and assisting, regulating, and promoting a strong U.S. 
Merchant Marine are opportunities to revitalize and overhaul existing 
processes to improve the operations of these vital maritime services. 
Preserving American prosperity and global stability requires focus and 
the continued evolution of key initiatives to build strong and robust 
Coast Guard and U.S. Merchant Marine workforces.
    Thank you for the opportunity to testify today and thank you for 
your continued support of the United States Coast Guard. I look forward 
to your questions.
    Mr. Webster of Florida. Thank you so much.
    Next, we have Rear Admiral Phillips.
    You are recognized for 5 minutes.

 TESTIMONY OF ANN C. PHILLIPS, REAR ADMIRAL, U.S. NAVY (RET.), 
           AND ADMINISTRATOR, MARITIME ADMINISTRATION

    Admiral Phillips. Good morning, Chairman Webster, Ranking 
Member Carbajal, members of the subcommittee. Thank you for 
your support for the Maritime Administration, and thank you for 
the opportunity to testify today regarding mariner requirements 
to support our Nation's sealift capability.
    In so many ways, the U.S. merchant marine is critical to 
our Nation's economy and our military. Our ability to project 
power around the globe requires our commercial vessel operators 
as well as MARAD's Ready Reserve Force and the Military Sealift 
Command. All of these vessels draw from the same pool of 
merchant mariners with unlimited tonnage credentials.
    Ensuring that we have a robust pool of mariners with the 
appropriate credentials is a critical priority for MARAD. A 
study prepared by the Maritime Workforce Working Group and 
released by MARAD in 2017 found the U.S. was short about 1,800 
mariners with unlimited tonnage credentials to sustain a full 
activation to meet sealift needs in an uncontested environment.
    During the 6 years since the 2017 study was released, 
globally standardized credentialing requirements have had an 
impact on the U.S. merchant marine. And, of course, the 
maritime industry has also been profoundly affected by the 
COVID pandemic.
    Mariner credentials are issued by the U.S. Coast Guard, but 
their IT systems are challenged to provide granular detail 
regarding sealift-qualified mariners. That said, ascertaining 
the size of the mariner pool that could be activated requires 
knowing not only the number of mariners with valid credentials, 
but also the number from among that pool who would be available 
and willing to serve, including in a contested environment.
    Panning back, we also have to keep in mind that 
requirements for sealift-qualified mariners are a function of 
the size of the U.S.-flagged fleet, which also determines the 
number and type of job opportunities available to mariners.
    Full activation of the sealift fleet would involve our 
U.S.-flagged commercially operated fleet sailing 
internationally, larger oceangoing Jones Act vessels requiring 
mariners with unlimited tonnage credentials, vessels operated 
by the Military Sealift Command, and the nearly 50 vessels 
comprising MARAD's Ready Reserve Force. All of these vessels 
draw crewmembers from the same constrained pool of sealift-
qualified mariners.
    Pursuant to 46 U.S.C. 50101, the United States is to have a 
merchant marine that is, quote, ``sufficient to carry the 
waterborne domestic commerce and a substantial part of the 
waterborne export and import foreign commerce of the United 
States.'' However, MARAD estimates that we carry less than 2 
percent of our waterborne foreign commerce on U.S.-flagged 
vessels, and the commercially operated U.S.-flagged fleet 
moving commerce in the foreign trade is comprised of just 85 
vessels.
    Fundamentally, addressing our Nation's mariner needs 
requires a whole-of-Government effort paired with multifaceted 
industry initiatives. As part of that collaboration, MARAD is 
working to strengthen the mariner workforce and our U.S.-
flagged foreign trading fleet.
    Noting that the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy is the primary 
source of licensed mariners with service obligations, the 
Biden-Harris administration has been addressing the many 
longstanding and systemic challenges at the Academy as well.
    We are also continuing our effort to ensure that every 
American drawn to service at sea is respected and can succeed 
on the basis of their skill and professionalism.
    We also administer Federal programs that support the six 
State maritime academies, and we are building extraordinary new 
training ships, called the National Security Multimission 
Vessels, that will also be exceptional recruiting tools. The 
first ship, the Empire State, will be delivered very soon.
    In September 2022, I convened a forum with industry 
stakeholders to solicit and discuss options for strengthening 
mariner recruitment and retention. I appreciate the many 
thoughtful industry proposals that are being offered.
    Under the Biden-Harris administration, MARAD is also 
working to grow the U.S.-flagged fleet and create new job 
opportunities for American mariners. In 2021, MARAD stood up 
the Cable Security Fleet program, which brought two cable-
laying vessels under the U.S. flag. In December 2022, MARAD 
issued an interim final rule to create the new Tanker Security 
Program. We will shortly announce the first 10 ships selected 
for enrollment, which will create new employment opportunities 
for approximately 500 U.S. mariners.
    MARAD is also continuing our work to support effective 
implementation of cargo preference requirements. To help 
attract additional vessels to our flag, in 2022 the Biden-
Harris administration proposed that Congress eliminate the 3-
year period that vessels entering the U.S. flag must currently 
wait before they are eligible to carry civilian agency 
preference cargoes. However, though implementation of this 
proposal would have cost nothing, it was not adopted.
    Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today, 
and I welcome your questions.
    [Admiral Phillips' prepared statement follows:]

                                 
Prepared Statement of Ann C. Phillips, Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy (Ret.), 
               and Administrator, Maritime Administration
    Good morning, Chairman Webster, Ranking Member Carbajal, and 
Members of the Subcommittee. Thank you for your tremendous support for 
the Maritime Administration (MARAD) and thank you for the opportunity 
to testify today regarding the availability of U.S. mariners needed to 
meet our Nation's sealift requirements.
                           Mariner Readiness
    MARAD's mission is to foster, promote, and develop the maritime 
industry of the United States to meet the nation's economic and 
security needs. MARAD administers the Federal programs that support 
commercial sealift vessels, and we own and maintain the nearly 50 
vessels comprising the Ready Reserve Force (RRF). We also have an 
extensive role supporting mariner education in the U.S.--and 
particularly the education and training of individuals working to earn 
unlimited tonnage licenses.
    A study prepared by the Maritime Workforce Working Group and 
released by MARAD in 2017 found that the U.S. did not have enough 
mariners with unlimited tonnage credentials to sustain a full 
activation of the RRF and our commercially operated vessels to meet 
sealift needs. Specifically, the 2017 analysis determined that, at that 
time, concurrent operations of the commercially operated U.S.-flagged 
fleet and sustained military sealift operations would require 13,607 
U.S. mariners with unlimited credentials. In 2017, the estimated pool 
of actively sailing mariners was comprised of 11,768 sealift qualified 
mariners--documenting a deficit of 1,839 mariners. This optimistic 
scenario assumed that all qualified mariners would be both available 
and willing to sail as needed.
    During the six years since the 2017 study was released, globally 
standardized credentialing requirements have had an impact on the U.S. 
Merchant Marine. And of course, the maritime industry--like many other 
industries--has also been profoundly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. 
Both of these developments have negatively impacted mariner retention.
    Mariner credentials are issued by the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), but 
USCG information technology systems are not currently structured to 
provide granular details regarding the pool of sealift qualified U.S. 
mariners. That said, ascertaining the true size of the U.S. mariner 
pool that could be activated in an emergency would require knowing not 
only the number of U.S. mariners with valid unlimited tonnage 
credentials but also the number from among that pool who would be 
available and willing to serve, particularly in a contested 
environment.
                    Status of the U.S.-Flagged Fleet
    Requirements for sealift qualified mariners are a function of the 
size of the U.S.-flagged fleet, which also determines the number and 
type of job opportunities available to mariners.
    Pursuant to 46 U.S.C. Sec.  50101, the United States is to have a 
merchant marine that is ``sufficient to carry the waterborne domestic 
commerce and a substantial part of the waterborne export and import 
foreign commerce of the United States and to provide shipping service 
essential for maintaining the flow of the waterborne domestic and 
foreign commerce at all times.''
    The domestic commerce of the United States--that is, commerce 
between two points in the U.S.--is carried on U.S.-flagged, coastwise 
qualified vessels, typically known as ``Jones Act qualified'' vessels. 
Data from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the 2021 calendar year 
show that there were nearly 45,000 vessels of all types in the Jones 
Act trade at that time. A study completed in 2019 by PriceWaterhouse 
Coopers for the Transportation Institute concluded that the Jones Act 
supported nearly 650,000 jobs and contributed more than $72 billion to 
our nation's Gross Domestic Product. U.S.-flag vessels provide well-
paying, high-quality jobs for U.S. mariners.
    Presently, MARAD estimates that we carry less than 2% of our 
import/export waterborne foreign commerce on U.S.-flagged vessels. The 
U.S.-flagged fleet moving import/export waterborne commerce in the 
foreign trade is comprised of just 85 vessels. Sixty of these vessels 
participate in the Maritime Security Program (MSP) and two participate 
in the Cable Security Fleet Program (CSP), which provide payments to 
vessel operators in return for vessel availability to meet government 
needs. Ten vessels will eventually be enrolled in the new Tanker 
Security Program (TSP) that MARAD is implementing pursuant to 
Congressional authorization and appropriations.
    Full activation of the sealift fleet would involve our U.S.-flagged 
commercially operated fleet sailing internationally, larger oceangoing 
Jones Act vessels requiring mariners with unlimited tonnage 
credentials, vessels operated by the Military Sealift Command, and the 
nearly 50 vessels comprising MARAD's RRF. All of these vessels draw 
crewmembers from the same constrained pool of sealift qualified 
mariners.
       MARAD Initiatives To Support Mariner Education & Training
    In September 2022, I convened a forum attended by more than 75 
industry stakeholders to discuss mariner workforce challenges. Among 
many issues, we discussed the fact that providing better work/life 
balance to today's merchant mariners--comparable to the quality of work 
life in other sectors of the economy--is essential.
    We also discussed how critical it is to growing our mariner 
workforce and to recruiting and retaining the next generation of 
mariners to ensure that all mariners are treated with respect and 
dignity and are guaranteed safe workplaces. Every mariner must have the 
opportunity to succeed and advance on the basis of their skills and 
professionalism, and we must ensure that our U.S. Merchant Marine 
reflects the values and diversity of the nation it serves. I thank this 
Committee and the entire Congress for supporting ongoing efforts to 
strengthen safety in the maritime industry.
    In recent months, I have had the opportunity to discuss many 
proposals developed by all corners of the maritime industry to help 
expand recruitment and to support the retention of mariners, and I 
appreciate industry's many efforts in this regard. Fundamentally, 
addressing our nation's mariner needs requires a whole-of-government 
effort paired with multi-faceted industry initiatives. As part of that 
collaboration, MARAD is implementing numerous programs and policies to 
strengthen the mariner workforce.
U.S. Merchant Marine Academy
    MARAD operates the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA), located at 
Kings Point, New York. The Academy graduates just over 200 students 
annually who have earned their Bachelor of Science degrees, USCG 
merchant mariner licenses with officer endorsements, and commissions in 
the U.S. Armed Forces reserves. The USMMA is the primary source of 
licensed mariners with service obligations.
    Recognizing the urgent need to address the many long-standing and 
systemic challenges at the Academy, under the Biden-Harris 
Administration, MARAD and USMMA have been working to combat sexual 
assault and sexual harassment and to advance culture change to improve 
safety for USMMA Midshipmen and indeed for all mariners. In November 
2021, MARAD/USMMA briefly paused USMMA's Sea Year training so that the 
U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), MARAD, and USMMA could 
strengthen policies and procedures to help prevent sexual assault and 
harassment, improve the support provided to survivors, and support a 
culture of accountability at sea. In December 2021, MARAD introduced 
the ``Every Mariner Builds a Respectful Culture'' (EMBARC) program, 
which enumerates sexual assault and sexual harassment prevention and 
response procedures that commercial carriers agree to before MARAD 
permits them to carry USMMA cadets on their ships.
    To strengthen MARAD's oversight of the EMBARC program, MARAD 
established and is staffing the MARAD Office of Cadet Training At-Sea 
Safety within the office of the Deputy Associate Administrator for 
Maritime Education and Training. The new Director of the office joined 
MARAD in August 2022, and three other staff have subsequently joined 
the office. This office manages EMBARC enrollments and compliance 
reviews. Training of the initial audit team has been completed and 
fourteen enrolled vessels have already been assessed by the team to 
ensure their compliance with the EMBARC standards.
    At the USMMA, additional efforts are underway to combat sexual 
assault and sexual harassment and to improve safety both at sea and on 
the campus. For example, to strengthen the Sexual Assault Prevention 
and Response office, the Academy has added a new GS-15 Director 
position in the office. Using direct hire authority provided in the 
Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) (Pub. 
L. 117-81), USMMA has filled the position with a new employee who 
reported to the Academy in September 2022.
    Thanks to the FY 2023 NDAA, commercially operated vessels must 
comply with standards set by MARAD regarding the prevention of, and 
response to, sexual assault and harassment before they can train USMMA 
cadets. Further, the FY 2023 NDAA gave MARAD the authority to withhold 
payments from companies participating in the MSP, CSP, and TSP if they 
are not enrolled in--and operating in compliance with--EMBARC. MARAD is 
working as quickly as possible to implement an EMBARC rule pursuant to 
the authority provided by the FY 2023 NDAA.
    In addition, the FY 2023 NDAA requires that certain ocean-going 
vessels include sexual assault and sexual harassment response policies 
in their Safety Management Systems--which has been a central tenet of 
EMBARC. In short, the FY 2023 NDAA reinforces a long overdue change in 
shipboard culture that will promote fair and equitable treatment of all 
mariners and contribute to a safer working environment.
    At the same time, we recognize that there is more we must do to 
eliminate sexual assault and sexual harassment at the USMMA, and in the 
merchant marine generally. Last year, the Department of Transportation 
proposed the creation of an Independent Review Commission on the 
Prevention of, and Response to, Sexual Assault, Sexual Harassment and 
Related Offenses, modeled on a recent DOD advisory body that made 
recommendations related to accountability, prevention, climate and 
culture, and victim care and support. While Congress did not take up 
that proposal, we intend to ask the USMMA Advisory Council required by 
the FY22 NDAA to make recommendations on sexual assault and sexual 
harassment prevention and response one of its core mandates.
    MARAD has also been working to rehabilitate and replace existing 
infrastructure at USMMA's campus and to strengthen significantly 
USMMA's ability to plan and manage capital investments and major 
maintenance efforts. Consistent with recommendations from the National 
Academy of Public Administration (NAPA), MARAD created and staffed a 
new Senior Executive Service position to lead facilities investments at 
the Academy and is reorganizing the infrastructure and maintenance 
management organization at the Academy. MARAD and the DOT have also 
created new oversight bodies to ensure that investments of taxpayer 
funds are properly managed, and yield completed projects that address 
the Academy's most urgent needs. In late 2022, MARAD/USMMA released a 
Capital Improvement Program that prioritizes planned capital 
investments to address the immediate health and safety needs of the 
Academy's midshipmen and to support re-accreditation of the Academy.
Support to State Maritime Academies
    The six State Maritime Academies (SMAs) are located in California, 
Michigan, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, and Texas. MARAD administers 
extensive Federal programs that support the SMAs, including providing a 
MARAD-owned and maintained training vessel to each school, as well as 
limited direct funding and some additional financial assistance to 
partially offset the cost of fuel used by the training vessels.
    Since FY 2018, Congress has appropriated a total of $1.61 billion 
towards the re-capitalization of the MARAD training ship fleet. With 
this funding, MARAD is building five National Security Multi-mission 
Vessels (NSMV), which will provide state-of-the-art training platforms 
that ensure the U.S. continues to set the world standard in maritime 
training.
    The ships--which the Secretary of Transportation has designated as 
the State class--are designed with dedicated training spaces, including 
classrooms, a training bridge, lab spaces, and an auditorium. Each NSMV 
has space to embark up to 600 cadets, maximizing the capability of the 
ship and its mission to provide students with a world-class education. 
Delivery of the first NSMV--the EMPIRE STATE--will occur this summer, 
and by 2026, one NSMV will be provided to each SMA except the Great 
Lakes Maritime Academy.
    I thank the SMAs for their ongoing support of initiatives to 
strengthen safety at sea. I note that all SMAs have confirmed they will 
not place their students on any vessels operated by companies that are 
eligible to enroll in EMBARC unless the companies are enrolled. I also 
appreciate the SMAs' ongoing work to develop policies and procedures 
modeled on EMBARC to combat sexual assault and sexual harassment on 
small, regional commercial vessel operators on which they rely to train 
SMA students. Such vessel operators are not able to comply with all 
elements of EMBARC, which is designed to apply to operators of large, 
ocean-going vessels. Finally, I note that prior to the placement of an 
NSMV at an SMA, each SMA will be required to enter into a new 
Memorandum of Agreement with MARAD that enumerates the terms and 
conditions governing the operation of the MARAD-owned vessels, 
including a set of policies that adapt EMBARC for application on board 
training ships.
Centers of Excellence
    The FY 2018 NDAA authorized the Secretary of Transportation to 
designate Centers of Excellence for Domestic Maritime Workforce 
Training and Education (CoE). Pursuant to this authority, MARAD 
developed, and the Secretary approved, a voluntary program, which 
includes an application process, to identify and recommend qualified 
and eligible entities for CoE designation. A CoE designation is the 
first step in strengthening a nationwide partnership of academic 
centers focused on advancing the goals and efforts of the maritime 
industry
    Twenty-seven facilities were designated as CoEs in May 2021. 
Designees included accredited community colleges, technical colleges, a 
shipyard apprenticeship program, and maritime training centers under 
State supervision. The CoEs help provide outreach to diverse 
communities around the Nation and expand awareness of the maritime 
industry, including the U.S. Merchant Marine.
Growing the U.S.-Flagged Fleet
    Under the Biden-Harris Administration, MARAD is administering 
statutorily authorized initiatives that are growing the U.S.-flagged 
fleet and creating new job opportunities for American mariners with 
unlimited tonnage credentials. In 2021, MARAD stood up the Cable 
Security Fleet Program, which brought two cable laying vessels under 
the U.S. flag. In December 2022, MARAD issued the updated Voluntary 
Tanker Agreement and an Interim Final Rule to create the new TSP. The 
application period closed on February 17, 2023, and we anticipate 
announcing the first 10 ships selected for enrollment in the near term. 
The TSP initiative will create new employment opportunities for 
approximately 500 U.S. mariners.
    MARAD is also continuing our work to support effective 
implementation of cargo preference requirements. We are working with 
the Biden-Harris Administration's Made In America Office to help 
agencies understand and meet cargo preference requirements. In 
addition, consistent with my prior testimony before this Subcommittee, 
I have written to all federal departments and agencies explaining how 
MARAD can help them ensure they meet their obligations under cargo 
preference laws and regulations.
    MARAD is working diligently on revisions to the cargo preference 
regulations as required by the FY 2023 NDAA. As part of that effort, 
and also consistent with my testimony before the Subcommittee last 
year, on March 1, MARAD published a Request for Information in the 
Federal Register asking members of the public to provide information on 
their experiences with cargo preference. We will use the input we 
receive to inform our work on the rule revisions as well as our 
continued interagency dialogue.
    One of the current challenges with meeting cargo preference 
requirements is ensuring we have both enough vessels and the wide mix 
of vessel types to carry the many types of cargoes that the government 
impels. To help attract additional vessels to our flag, in 2022, the 
Biden-Harris Administration proposed that the prior Congress eliminate 
the 3-year period that vessels entering the U.S. flag must currently 
wait before they are eligible to carry civilian agency preference 
cargoes. Although implementation of this proposal would have no cost to 
the government, it was not adopted.
                               Conclusion
    Ensuring that we have a robust pool of mariners with unlimited 
tonnage credentials to provide the sealift capacity to meet the 
military's needs and to support our economic success is a critical 
priority for MARAD--particularly given the evolving threats in what the 
National Security Strategy has identified as a ``decisive decade.'' 
Thank you for the opportunity to discuss this issue today and I look 
forward to answering your questions.

    Mr. Webster of Florida. Thank you very much.
    Ms. MacLeod.

 TESTIMONY OF HEATHER MacLEOD, DIRECTOR, HOMELAND SECURITY AND 
         JUSTICE, U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE

    Ms. MacLeod. Chairman Webster, Ranking Member Carbajal, and 
members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to 
be here today to discuss GAO's recent work related to Coast 
Guard recruitment and retention issues.
    Ensuring the United States has a sufficient number of 
qualified military personnel is a matter of national security. 
The ability to recruit and retain Active Duty, Reserve, and 
civilian personnel is critical to maintaining unit readiness 
and morale, ensuring sufficient levels of experienced leaders, 
and avoiding unnecessary costs.
    But the services face recruiting and retention challenges. 
This includes the Coast Guard, which has missed its recruiting 
targets for the past 4 years and estimates it is short 4,800 
members.
    Our work has highlighted some challenges that the Coast 
Guard faces in recruiting and retaining certain segments of the 
workforce. Two areas we have recently reported on include 
cyberspace personnel and marine inspectors.
    Like other Federal agencies, the Coast Guard is 
increasingly dependent on its cyberspace workforce to maintain 
and protect its information systems and data from threats. We 
reported in September 2022 that the Service faced persistent 
challenges filling its cyberspace positions that it considers 
as critical. According to the Coast Guard, the Service has had 
difficulty filling and retaining personnel for these jobs as 
many were leaving for higher paying positions in the private 
sector.
    Our review resulted in five recommendations. Among these 
recommendations is that the Coast Guard establish a strategic 
workforce plan for its cyberspace workforce, and set and 
quantify retention goals and objectives.
    The Coast Guard agreed with our recommendations and has 
taken some steps towards addressing them. However, until the 
Coast Guard implements its workforce plan, it will likely miss 
opportunities to recruit for difficult-to-fill cyberspace 
positions.
    Further, for decades, the Coast Guard has faced challenges 
maintaining an adequate staff of marine inspectors. These 
personnel, which can be Active Duty or civilians, board vessels 
to determine whether they meet safety, security, and 
environmental requirements.
    In particular, marine inspectors we met with reported a 
number of factors that could negatively affect retention. These 
include long work hours, higher paying private-sector 
opportunities, the requirement to move to undesirable 
locations, and limited promotion opportunities.
    We found that the Coast Guard has taken several steps to 
increase both military and civilian marine inspector 
recruitment and retention. However, we also found that the 
Coast Guard did not regularly collect and analyze certain 
industry and workforce data, such as future potential 
retirements of Coast Guard personnel, which could affect 
retention of marine inspectors.
    As a result, we recommended that the Coast Guard collect 
additional data to forecast future workforce needs. The Coast 
Guard recently awarded a contract to study and fully model the 
marine inspection workforce. It does not expect to complete 
this project until summer of 2025.
    In addition, we have highlighted challenges related to 
servicemembers' quality of life, such as access to healthcare, 
childcare, educational opportunities, and housing, all of which 
may affect the Coast Guard's ability to retain personnel.
    Finally, we found that the Coast Guard has not fully 
assessed its workforce needs, which could help inform its 
recruiting goals. Specifically, as of March 2023, the Coast 
Guard reported that it has assessed its workforce needs for 
just 15 percent of units. One of our outstanding 
recommendations from this work is for the Coast Guard to update 
its workforce planning document with timeframes and milestones 
for completion.
    In closing, ensuring the U.S. has a sufficient number of 
qualified military personnel is a matter of national security. 
Taking additional steps to implement GAO's recommendations will 
further help the Coast Guard address recruitment and retention 
issues as the Service continues to monitor new challenges.
    At the request of this committee, we plan to initiate a 
review of the Coast Guard's efforts to recruit and retain its 
workforce this summer. In addition, we have ongoing work 
examining the Coast Guard's process for credentialing merchant 
mariners that we expect to complete by late summer.
    Chairman Webster, Ranking Member Carbajal, and members of 
the subcommittee, this completes my statement. I look forward 
to any questions.
    [Ms. MacLeod's prepared statement follows:]

                                 
Prepared Statement of Heather MacLeod, Director, Homeland Security and 
             Justice, U.S. Government Accountability Office
       Coast Guard: Recruitment and Retention Challenges Persist
    Chairman Webster, Ranking Member Carbajal, and Members of the 
Subcommittee:
    Thank you for the opportunity to discuss our work on U.S. Coast 
Guard recruitment and retention efforts. The Coast Guard--a multi-
mission, maritime military service within the Department of Homeland 
Security (DHS)--is responsible for conducting 11 statutory missions, 
such as marine safety and law enforcement operations.\1\ Coast Guard 
personnel are responsible for protecting and defending more than 
100,000 miles of U.S. coastline and inland waterways, and safeguarding 
an economic region covering 4.5 million square miles. The service also 
assists people in distress or those affected by natural and human-made 
disasters.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ 6 U.S.C. Sec.  468(a). For further information on the Coast 
Guard's 11 missions, see appendix I. By statute, the Coast Guard is at 
all times a military service and branch of the armed forces. It is 
required to maintain a state of readiness to function as a specialized 
service in the Navy in time of war or when directed by the President. 
See 14 U.S.C. Sec. Sec.  101-103.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The Coast Guard employs more than 55,000 personnel across the 
U.S.--including active duty, reserve, and civilian.\2\ These include, 
for example, operational field staff responsible for conducting 
missions and support personnel responsible for managing Coast Guard 
policy, planning, and logistics to meet mission needs. However, the 
Coast Guard is approximately 4,800 members short across the entire 
service and has missed its recruiting targets for the past four fiscal 
years, according to the service's fiscal year 2024 congressional budget 
justification. The Coast Guard's workforce strategic plan, Ready 
Workforce 2030, states that attracting enough qualified young women and 
men to serve is one of the biggest challenges facing each of the U.S. 
military services today.\3\ As shown in figure 1, a number of factors 
influence the Department of Defense's (DOD) ability to recruit and 
retain active-duty personnel, many of which Coast Guard officials have 
stated also apply to its personnel.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \2\ As of April 2022, Coast Guard officials stated that the agency 
had a total workforce of 55,236--including 46,235 military (i.e., 
active duty and reserve) and 9,001 civilian personnel. Active-duty 
personnel are full-time enlisted and officer personnel responsible for 
carrying out the Coast Guard's missions. The military workforce also 
includes reserve personnel. These are part-time enlisted and officer 
personnel. They are trained and qualified to take duty in times of war 
or national emergency and to augment Coast Guard forces and provide 
surge capacity to respond to natural or human-made disasters, 
accidents, and all other hazards.
    \3\ U.S. Coast Guard, Ready Workforce 2030 (Washington, D.C.: April 
2022).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Figure 1. Factors Influencing Active-Duty Personnel Recruitment and 
                               Retention

[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

    To maintain its active-duty levels, the military services, 
including the Coast Guard, must balance recruiting new members and 
retaining already trained service members. The military's ability to 
recruit and retain qualified enlisted personnel and officers is 
critical to maintaining unit readiness and morale, ensuring sufficient 
levels of experienced leaders, and avoiding unnecessary costs.\4\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \4\ In March 2023, we reported on recruitment and retention 
challenges for active-duty personnel facing the Department of Defense 
(DOD). See GAO, National Security Snapshot: DOD Active-Duty Recruitment 
and Retention Challenges, GAO-23-106551 (Washington, D.C.: Mar. 28, 
2023).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    My statement today discusses our prior work on (1) Coast Guard's 
assessments of its workforce needs, (2) recruitment and retention 
issues for certain segments of the Coast Guard workforce, and (3) 
challenges identified related to Coast Guard workforce retention. This 
statement is based primarily on reports published from November 2019 to 
April 2023 related to Coast Guard and broader military workforce issues 
as well as selected updates to those reports that we conducted through 
May 2023 regarding Coast Guard efforts to address our previous 
recommendations. For these products, we analyzed Coast Guard and DOD 
documents and data and interviewed agency officials. This statement 
also includes additional recruitment and retention information based on 
interviews we held and Coast Guard documents we obtained during the 
course of our prior reviews. In addition, for our selected updates 
through May 2023, we reviewed Coast Guard and DOD documentation and met 
with Coast Guard officials.
    We made 29 recommendations to Coast Guard and DOD in the reports 
covered by this statement, including to improve workforce planning 
processes and data monitoring and collection.\5\ The Coast Guard and 
DOD generally concurred with the recommendations. As of April 2023, 
Coast Guard and DOD have taken actions to fully implement five of these 
29 recommendations, and 24 remain unaddressed. GAO continues to monitor 
the agencies' progress in implementing them.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \5\ One report also included a matter for congressional 
consideration, which has been implemented. See GAO, Military Housing: 
Actions Needed to Improve the Process for Setting Allowances for 
Servicemembers and Calculating Payments for Privatized Housing 
Projects, GAO-21-137 (Washington, D.C.: Jan. 25, 2021).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    More detailed information on the objectives, scope, and methodology 
for our work can be found in the issued reports listed in Related GAO 
Products at the conclusion of this statement. We conducted the work 
upon which this statement is based in accordance with generally 
accepted government auditing standards. Those standards require that we 
plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence 
to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on 
our audit objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained provides a 
reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit 
objectives.
            Limited Assessments of Workforce Needs Conducted
    The Coast Guard has conducted limited assessments of its workforce 
needs. Such assessments could help inform its recruiting goals. We have 
previously reported that the Coast Guard had taken some steps to assess 
its workforce needs, including developing a Manpower Requirements Plan 
in 2018 that established a goal of completing workforce requirements 
determinations for all units.\6\ However, since the Coast Guard began 
using its workforce requirements determination process in 2003, it has 
assessed only a small portion of its workforce needs through the 
requirements determination process.\7\ Specifically, in February 2020, 
we found that the Coast Guard had completed workforce requirements 
determinations from calendar years 2003 through 2019 for 6 percent of 
its workforce.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \6\ GAO, Coast Guard: Increasing Mission Demands Highlight 
Importance of Assessing Its Workforce Needs, GAO-22-106135 (Washington, 
D.C.: July 27, 2022); Coast Guard: Actions Needed to Evaluate the 
Effectiveness of Organizational Changes and Determine Workforce Needs, 
GAO-20-223 (Washington, D.C.: Feb. 26, 2020).
    \7\ In April 2018, the Coast Guard reported to Congress that it 
faced challenges meeting its daily mission demands because it was 
operating below the workforce level necessary to meet all of its 
mission requirements. In this report, the Coast Guard set a goal to 
complete workforce requirements determinations--its preferred tool for 
assessing needed workforce levels--for all of its units. U.S. Coast 
Guard, Manpower Requirements Plan, Report to Congress (Apr. 13, 2018).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    We also found several limitations affecting the Coast Guard's 
ability to effectively implement its workforce requirements 
determination process. Specifically, it lacks time frames for how it 
will achieve its workforce assessment goal--notably, to assess the 
workforce requirements for all of its positions and units.\8\ Among 
other things, we recommended that the Coast Guard update its Manpower 
Requirements Plan with time frames and milestones for doing so.\9\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \8\ GAO-20-223. The Coast Guard's workforce requirements 
determination process uses a structured analysis to determine the 
number and types of personnel needed to effectively perform each 
mission to a specified standard. The process takes into account the 
effect of existing, new, or modified requirements on Coast Guard's 
workforce and is to conclude with a documented determination of the 
results.
    \9\ We made a total of six recommendations, four of which addressed 
limitations with Coast Guard's workforce requirements determination 
process. As of April 2023, the Coast Guard implemented three of these 
recommendations by updating its guidance, determining necessary 
personnel to conduct the workforce determination process, and tracking 
the extent to which it completed this process for its units.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    DHS concurred with our recommendations and described actions 
planned to address them. Among them, the Coast Guard was required to 
submit this plan to Congress in fiscal year 2022, but did not do so 
until March 2023. In the plan, the Coast Guard reported that it had 
completed workforce requirements determinations for 15 percent of its 
workforce. As of May 2023, Coast Guard officials said they had not 
determined time frames and milestones to fully implement its workforce 
requirements plan, but indicated it could be feasible to develop a 
rough estimate of how many positions it plans to assess in the next 
five years. We will continue to monitor actions the service takes to 
implement our recommendations.
 Certain Workforce Segments Have Experienced Recruitment and Retention 
                                 Issues
    We have previously reported that the Coast Guard has faced issues 
related to the recruitment and retention of certain specialized 
personnel such as its cyberspace workforce, Deployable Specialized 
Forces, and marine inspectors.\10\ These issues include competition 
with higher paying opportunities in the private sector, limited 
opportunities for promotion, and long work hours. The Coast Guard has 
taken some steps to address these challenges, but additional steps 
remain to ensure that it recruits and retains the specialized staff 
necessary to complete its missions.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \10\ In addition, we have an ongoing review examining the culture 
within the U.S. Coast Guard as it pertains to the sexual orientation 
and gender identity of active duty servicemembers, which may provide 
insights on the recruitment and retention of lesbian, gay, bisexual, 
transgender, and queer individuals. We expect to report on the results 
of our work in early 2024.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Cyberspace Workforce. We reported in September 2022 that the 
service has faced persistent challenges filling certain cyberspace 
positions it considers as critical, or understaffed.\11\ Like other 
federal agencies, the Coast Guard is increasingly dependent upon its 
cyberspace workforce, which includes both military and civilian 
personnel, to maintain and protect its information systems and data 
from threats. Coast Guard data as of September 2021 showed the 
service's civilian cyberspace workforce had a greater share of 
vacancies than its military cyberspace workforce. On the civilian 
workforce side, the Coast Guard has faced particular challenges in 
filling positions within its civilian IT Management series, its largest 
civilian cyberspace workforce position category. According to an April 
2021 Coast Guard memorandum, the service has had difficulty filling and 
retaining personnel for these positions because many were leaving for 
higher paying positions in the private sector.\12\ The memorandum 
describes the vacancies in these positions as leading to a ``retention 
and morale problem'' that is approaching an ``unmanageable level.'' It 
further states that retaining these personnel is mandatory to remain 
resilient against cyber threats.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \11\ GAO, Coast Guard: Workforce Planning Actions Needed to Address 
Growing Cyberspace Mission Demands, GAO-22-105208 (Washington, D.C.: 
Sept. 27, 2022).
    \12\ Coast Guard, FY22 Workforce Planning Team Intervention 
Requests for Civilian Cyberspace Workforce, (Apr. 5, 2021).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    In addition, we reported on the extent to which the Coast Guard 
implemented eight selected leading practices related to recruitment and 
retention.\13\ We found that the Coast Guard fully implemented three 
practices, partially implemented three, and did not implement two (see 
fig. 2).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \13\ To select these leading practices, we reviewed those 
identified in prior GAO reports, as well as two guidance documents from 
the Office of Personnel Management and the Office of Management and 
Budget on strategic workforce planning, recruiting and hiring efforts, 
retention incentives, employee morale, and training and development. 
See GAO-22-105208 for more information.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

   Figure 2: Coast Guard Implementation of Selected Recruitment and 
    Retention Leading Practices for Its Cyberspace Workforce, as of 
                             September 2022

[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]


    To address the gaps in implementation for these recruitment and 
retention leading practices, we made five recommendations to the Coast 
Guard, including for the service to: 1) establish a strategic workforce 
plan for its cyberspace workforce, 2) develop and analyze metrics for 
recruitment of civilian cyberspace personnel, 3) and set and quantify 
retention goals and objectives.\14\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \14\ We also made a sixth recommendation, not related to the 
recruitment and retention leading practices, for the Coast Guard to 
determine the cyberspace staff needed to meet its mission demands.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The Coast Guard concurred with these recommendations and has taken 
some steps toward implementing them. For example, as of March 2023, the 
Coast Guard reported it was drafting a workforce management plan, with 
a projected completion date in September 2023. Additionally, the 
service reported it plans to track cyberspace workforce health metrics 
and consider retention goals and incentives. Until the Coast Guard 
implements its workforce plan, it will likely miss opportunities to 
recruit for difficult to fill cyberspace positions. Further, setting 
and quantifying specific retention goals and objectives for its 
cyberspace workforce would help the service better evaluate the success 
of its retention approaches.
    Deployable Specialized Forces. In November 2019, we reported that 
the Coast Guard had taken steps to improve retention among its 
Deployable Specialized Forces (Specialized Forces) personnel--units 
with the capabilities needed to handle drug interdiction, terrorism, 
and other threats to the U.S. maritime environment.\15\ Prior to a 2007 
reorganization, active-duty Coast Guard personnel working in 
Specialized Forces units could not remain in those units and be 
competitive for promotions, according to Coast Guard officials we 
interviewed for that review. Officials told us that this was because 
the Coast Guard has certain requirements for career progression, 
including personnel working in various assignments within a given 
career path.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \15\ Specialized Forces include a mix of active-duty, reservist, 
and civilian personnel. GAO, Coast Guard: Assessing Deployable 
Specialized Forces' Workforce Needs Could Improve Efficiency and Reduce 
Potential Overlap or Gaps in Capabilities, GAO-20-33 (Washington, D.C.: 
Nov. 21, 2019).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    After the reorganization, the Coast Guard created a maritime law 
enforcement career path within Specialized Forces in response to 
challenges the service faced in retaining law enforcement personnel. 
Coast Guard officials we spoke with told us that the career path has 
helped them retain qualified Specialized Forces personnel.
    Marine Inspectors. The Coast Guard has faced long-standing 
challenges maintaining an adequate staff of experienced marine 
inspectors who board vessels to determine whether they meet safety, 
security, and environmental requirements.\16\ In January 2022, we 
reported on marine inspection workforce issues.\17\ In particular, 
marine inspectors we met with reported a number of factors that could 
negatively affect retention, including long work hours, the ability to 
obtain higher pay in the private sector, the requirement to move to 
undesirable locations, and limited promotion opportunities.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \16\ Coast Guard marine inspectors generally conduct inspections on 
U.S.-flag vessels and examinations on foreign-flag vessels, which are 
registered in jurisdictions other than the United States. The depth and 
scope of inspections and examinations differ. Unless otherwise stated, 
this statement uses the term ``inspection'' to refer to both 
inspections and examinations that marine inspectors conduct.
    \17\ GAO, Coast Guard: Enhancements Needed to Strengthen Marine 
Inspection Workforce Planning Efforts, GAO-22-104465 (Washington, D.C.: 
Jan. 12, 2022).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    We found that the Coast Guard had taken several steps to increase 
both military and civilian marine inspector recruitment and retention.
      In 2018, the Coast Guard completed plans to establish a 
program that trains senior enlisted personnel to become marine 
inspectors sooner in their careers. This allows the Coast Guard to 
retain its more experienced marine inspectors for additional years 
before they retire.
      In addition, the Coast Guard has taken efforts to recruit 
civilians from industry. However, from 2009 through 2021, the retention 
rate of these civilians was only 67 percent, according to the Coast 
Guard.\18\ In response, the Coast Guard implemented a higher paygrade 
starting point, among other things, which should increase retention, 
according to Coast Guard officials.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \18\ The Coast Guard had hired 85 civilian apprentice marine 
inspectors since inception of the program in 2009 through April 2021, 
according to Coast Guard data. From the 62 that had completed the 
program, the Coast Guard had retained about 61 percent, about 11 
percent had been dismissed, and about 27 percent had resigned.

    However, we also found that the Coast Guard did not regularly 
collect and analyze certain industry and workforce data, such as future 
potential retirements of Coast Guard personnel, which could affect 
retention of marine inspectors.
    As a result, we recommended that the Coast Guard collect additional 
data to forecast future workforce needs. Collecting additional data, 
such as information on marine inspection retirement rates and industry 
trends, would enhance the Coast Guard's ability to identify potential 
future workforce needs and develop plans to address them. DHS concurred 
with the recommendation. The Coast Guard awarded a contract in February 
2022 to study and fully model the marine inspection workforce. 
According to the Coast Guard, the project is to be completed by the 
summer of 2025.
        Retention Challenges Related to Quality of Life Persist
    We have reported on persistent challenges related to quality of 
life factors, including health care, housing, and child care, which may 
affect the Coast Guard's ability to retain personnel. The Coast Guard 
considers its ability to support its workforce's quality of life as a 
vital part of recruiting and retaining its workforce looking 
forward.\19\ Challenges include the availability of health care, 
appropriateness of the housing allowance for military personnel, 
sufficient access to child care services, and the education 
opportunities of Coast Guard dependent children.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \19\ Ready Workforce 2030.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Health care. In April 2023, we found that Coast Guard personnel, 
particularly those located in remote areas, may experience challenges 
in accessing medical and dental care through TRICARE--DOD's health 
plan.\20\ For instance, Coast Guard active duty personnel and their 
dependents are more than twice as likely as the personnel and 
dependents from the other military services to be enrolled in TRICARE 
Prime Remote (see fig. 3).\21\ Such enrollment means they are stationed 
in an area that is more than 50 miles away from a military medical 
treatment facility.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \20\ GAO, Coast Guard Health Care: Additional Actions Could Help 
Ensure Beneficiaries' Access, GAO-23-105574 (Washington, D.C.: Apr. 4, 
2023).
    \21\ For any medical or dental care that is not available through 
the Coast Guard health services program, Coast Guard active duty 
personnel and their dependents are eligible for DOD's TRICARE health 
plan. Beneficiaries with a sponsor who lives and works more than 50 
miles, or more than a 1-hour driving time, from a DOD medical facility 
may be eligible for the benefits of TRICARE Prime if they enroll in 
TRICARE Prime Remote, available in designated locations.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Figure 3: Percent of U.S. Coast Guard Beneficiaries Enrolled in TRICARE 
 Prime Remote Compared to Beneficiaries of Other Military Services, as 
                            of October 2022

[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

Notes: Beneficiaries may be eligible to enroll in TRICARE Prime if they 
work or live inside a Prime Service Area, which is generally within 40 
 miles of a military medical treatment facility (medical facility), or 
   within 100 miles of a primary care manager. TRICARE Prime Remote 
extends the TRICARE Prime benefits to those beneficiaries who live more 
than 50 miles, or 1-hour driving time, from a medical facility. In this 
       figure, ``personnel'' refers to active-duty personnel and 
     ``dependents'' refers to dependents of active-duty personnel.

    Four of the six Coast Guard clinics selected in our review reported 
difficulty recruiting or retaining providers and Coast Guard health 
officials noted that these difficulties were particularly present in 
remote areas. Further, we found that almost 40 percent of Coast Guard 
clinics (17 of 43 clinics) were located in medically underserved areas, 
and 25 percent (11 of 43 clinics) were located in at least one type of 
geographic health provider shortage area (primary care, mental health, 
or dental).\22\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \22\ Medically underserved areas are those in which beneficiaries 
may lack ready access to primary care. The Health Resources and 
Services Administration within the Department of Health and Human 
Services reports areas that have been designated shortage areas, 
including medically underserved areas and health professional shortage 
areas. We used this publicly available data from https://data.hrsa.gov/
tools/shortage-area/by-address, accessed May 17, 2022, to conduct 
analyses on which Coast Guard clinics were located in medically 
underserved areas and geographic health professional shortage areas.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    We found that the Coast Guard conducts ad hoc monitoring of its 
beneficiaries' access to TRICARE, but it does not routinely analyze 
data from DOD and its contractors to monitor access. In particular, no 
formal agreement exists between the Coast Guard and DOD to facilitate 
the sharing of data for care provided at DOD medical facilities. As a 
result, we made seven recommendations to DHS and DOD, including that 
the Coast Guard and DOD agree to share access data and that the Coast 
Guard monitor access to TRICARE for Coast Guard beneficiaries. DHS 
concurred with our recommendations and identified planned actions to 
implement them, including increasing coordination on data sharing with 
DOD. The Coast Guard estimates completing planned actions by March 
2024. Obtaining and routinely monitoring TRICARE access data would 
better position the Coast Guard to identify and address potential 
access concerns to help ensure that its beneficiaries are receiving 
timely care.
    Housing. We have reported on issues with the appropriateness of the 
housing allowance for military personnel, including Coast Guard 
personnel. Military personnel may receive housing allowances to help 
cover the cost of suitable housing--such as apartments or rental units. 
However, in January 2021, we found that DOD's method for calculating 
housing compensation may not accurately represent housing costs.\23\ We 
found that DOD did not collect enough data on 44 percent (788 of 1,806) 
of locations and housing types to estimate the total housing costs. 
Specifically, these locations and housing types had fewer than DOD's 
minimum sample-size target, which it uses to help set the rate for the 
housing allowances.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \23\ GAO-21-137. Although the Coast Guard is a component of DHS, 
DOD has responsibility for managing these housing issues. 37 U.S.C. 
Sec. Sec.  101(3), 403.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    DOD officials stated that improperly determining which properties 
should be included in this calculation could have serious retention 
issues at locations in which the model produces inaccurate results. 
Without the correct sample sizes, it risked providing housing cost 
compensation that does not accurately represent the cost of suitable 
housing for personnel, including Coast Guard personnel who are 
stationed in such locations. We recommended that DOD review its 
sampling methodology to increase sample size.
    DOD implemented our recommendation by piloting a program in 2021 to 
use a subscription-based commercial data set to augment housing sample 
sizes as part of the data collection for the 2022 allowance rates. 
According to DOD, this resulted in a dramatic increase in the quantity 
and quality of units collected for the sample. DOD officials stated 
that, as a result, they plan to use the external data for the 2023 
housing allowance rates. Additionally, DOD implemented the use of a 
data smoothing technique to supplement housing data to meet sample size 
requirements in areas where there is low housing stock.
    In addition, we found that DOD had taken some steps to collect and 
monitor data used for setting housing allowance rates; however, DOD had 
not consistently relied on certain key types of data used in monitoring 
to set accurate rates. For example, DOD had not consistently monitored 
housing cost trends over time and compared them against the basic 
allowance for housing. As a result, we recommended that DOD establish 
and implement a process for using quality information to set allowance 
rates and ensure timely remediation of any identified deficiencies. 
Doing so would help DOD ensure that the rates are appropriate for 
servicemembers' rank and that rates reflect the current costs of 
housing in the private sector. DOD concurred with our recommendation 
and, as of March 2022, was working toward implementing it.
    We have ongoing work related to Coast Guard housing access, 
affordability, and related challenges. We expect to report on the 
results of our review in early 2024.
    Child care. In June 2022, we reported that the Coast Guard was 
working to increase access to quality child care by planning facility 
improvements and centralizing information to help families find child 
care in their communities.\24\ To support its personnel in balancing 
work and family life, the Coast Guard provides a variety of child care 
programs, both on-base and in local communities. We found that the 
Coast Guard operated nine facilities for child care (i.e., child 
development centers), but its ability to provide on-base care was 
limited to about 700 children.\25\ As of March 2022, over 300 children 
were on waitlists for Coast Guard child development centers.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \24\ GAO, Military Child Care: Coast Guard is Taking Steps to 
Increase Access for Families, GAO-22-105262 (Washington, D.C.: June 30, 
2022).
    \25\ The Coast Guard reported having capacity to serve up to 704 
children in its nine child development centers, while the Department of 
Defense reported a total capacity of approximately 104,000 children in 
761 child development centers.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    We also found that the Coast Guard relied on community-based 
providers who participated in its Fee Assistance program for the 
majority (82 percent) of children enrolled in childcare. Families 
enrolled in Fee Assistance programs, like many families seeking child 
care, may face challenges obtaining care when there are limited spaces 
available at community-based providers in their area.
    In 2020, the Coast Guard assessed the child care needs of its 
personnel and found that the rising cost of child care nationwide was 
among the most formidable challenges Coast Guard families face. In a 
March 2022 report to Congress, the Coast Guard stated that it planned 
to build four new child development centers and to renovate existing 
ones, which will provide access to on-base child care for more 
families.\26\ The Coast Guard has also centralized and updated online 
information to help families find child care in their communities. In 
addition, the Coast Guard increased subsidy amounts to help make child 
care more affordable, especially for families who live in high-cost 
areas. However, Coast Guard officials acknowledged that its efforts may 
not relieve the challenges faced by Coast Guard families in remote or 
geographically isolated areas that could continue to struggle to find 
child care. Officials also noted that the Coast Guard would continue to 
try to recruit and certify additional child care providers.\27\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \26\ U.S. Coast Guard. Procurement, Construction, and Improvements 
Spend Plan, Fiscal Year 2022 Report to Congress. (Washington, D.C.: 
March 15, 2022).
    \27\ GAO-22-106135.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Education. In February 2021, we reported that military families 
frequently cited education issues for their children as a drawback to 
military service, according to DOD.\28\ For example, children in 
military families transfer schools up to nine times, on average, before 
high school graduation.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \28\ Offices of the Secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, 
Memorandum for the National Governors Association (Washington, D.C.: 
Feb. 23, 2018). GAO, K-12 Education: U.S. Military Families Generally 
Have the Same Schooling Options as Other Families and Consider Multiple 
Factors When Selecting Schools, GAO-21-80 (Washington, D.C.: Feb. 4, 
2021).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    In addition, we reported that traditional public schools--schools 
where children are generally assigned based on where they live--were 
most commonly available to military families, with fewer choices 
available in rural areas.\29\ Traditional public schools comprised a 
majority of schooling options near most Coast Guard units (435 out of 
454).\30\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \29\ Children are generally assigned to traditional public 
elementary and secondary schools based on where they live. GAO-21-80.
    \30\ For the purposes of our report, schooling options near Coast 
Guard units referred to the average commuting distances in rural and 
urban areas of 20 miles and 16 miles, respectively.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    We also found that, similar to U.S. schools in general, rural areas 
where Coast Guard units were located had fewer public schools and fewer 
types of public school options--including charter schools and magnet 
schools--nearby compared to units in more highly populated urban areas. 
Within 454 Coast Guard units, 137 were rural and 317 were urban. Rural 
Coast Guard units had a median of 32 schools nearby, while urban Coast 
Guard units had a median of 186 schools nearby. As a result, Coast 
Guard personnel with school-age children had fewer educational options 
in many rural locations, which may affect the service's ability to 
retain these personnel.
    Ensuring the U.S. has a sufficient number of qualified military 
personnel is a matter of national and homeland security. However, 
according to DOD officials, the department is facing its most 
challenging recruitment environment in 50 years. Moreover, according to 
Coast Guard officials, it can be particularly challenging for the Coast 
Guard to recruit because it is smaller and less well known than the 
other military services. Further, the Coast Guard Master Chief Petty 
Officer reported in an April 2023 congressional hearing that all Coast 
Guard units were facing personnel shortfalls.\31\ While DOD has a 
combined force of active-duty, reserve, and civilian personnel of over 
2.8 million, the Coast Guard's combined force numbers about 55,000. We 
plan to initiate a review of the Coast Guard's efforts to recruit and 
retain its workforce, and related challenges, in summer 2023.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \31\ U.S. House of Representatives, Review of Fiscal Year 2024 
Budget Request for the U.S. Coast Guard. (Washington, D.C.: Apr. 18, 
2023).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Chairman Webster, Ranking Member Carbajal, and Members of the 
Subcommittee, this completes my prepared statement. I would be pleased 
to respond to any questions that you may have at this time.
        Appendix I: Information on the Coast Guard's 11 Missions
   This appendix details the Coast Guard's 11 missions (see table 1).

 
          Table 1: Information on the Coast Guard's 11 Missions
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                  Mission                            Description
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aids to Navigation........................  Mitigate the risk to safe
                                             navigation by providing and
                                             maintaining more than
                                             51,000 buoys, beacons,
                                             lights, and other aids to
                                             mark channels and denote
                                             hazards.
Defense Readiness.........................  Maintain the training and
                                             capability necessary to
                                             immediately integrate with
                                             Department of Defense
                                             forces in both peacetime
                                             operations and during times
                                             of war.
Drug Interdiction.........................  Stem the flow of illegal
                                             drugs into the United
                                             States.
Ice Operations............................  Establish and maintain
                                             tracks for critical
                                             waterways, assisting and
                                             escorting vessels beset or
                                             stranded in ice, and remove
                                             navigational hazards
                                             created by ice in navigable
                                             waterways.
Living Marine Resources...................  Enforce laws governing the
                                             conservation, management,
                                             and recovery of living
                                             marine resources, marine
                                             protected species, and
                                             national marine sanctuaries
                                             and monuments.
Marine Environmental Protection...........  Enforce laws which deter the
                                             introduction of invasive
                                             species into the maritime
                                             environment, stop
                                             unauthorized ocean dumping,
                                             and prevent and respond to
                                             oil and chemical spills.
Marine Safety.............................  Enforce laws which prevent
                                             death, injury, and property
                                             loss in the marine
                                             environment.
Migrant Interdiction......................  Stem the flow via maritime
                                             routes of unlawful
                                             migration and human
                                             smuggling activities.
Other Law Enforcement.....................  Enforce international
                                             treaties, including the
                                             prevention of illegal
                                             fishing in international
                                             waters and the dumping of
                                             plastics and other marine
                                             debris.
Ports, Waterways, and Coastal Security....  Ensure the security of the
                                             waters subject to the
                                             jurisdiction of the United
                                             States and the waterways,
                                             ports, and intermodal
                                             landside connections that
                                             comprise the marine
                                             transportation system--and
                                             protect those who live or
                                             work on the water or who
                                             use the maritime
                                             environment for recreation.
Search and Rescue.........................  Search for, and provide aid
                                             to, people who are in
                                             distress or imminent
                                             danger.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: 6 U.S.C. Sec.  468(a); GAO summary of Coast Guard information.
  GAO-23-106750


    Mr. Webster of Florida. Thank you very much.
    Next, we have Dr. Asch.
    You are recognized for 5 minutes.
    Ms. Asch. Can you hear me? It doesn't seem like the 
microphone--can you hear me?
    Mr. Webster of Florida. I can.

   TESTIMONY OF BETH J. ASCH, Ph.D., SENIOR ECONOMIST, RAND 
                          CORPORATION

    Ms. Asch. OK. Thank you.
    Chairman Webster, Ranking Member Carbajal, and 
distinguished members of the subcommittee, I would like to 
thank you for this opportunity to testify today.
    Each year, the armed services set accession missions, which 
are their goals for how many people they want to recruit that 
year. The services rarely miss their accession missions, but in 
fiscal year 2022, the Coast Guard missed its accession mission 
by over 25 percent.
    The other services struggled as well. The Army not only 
missed its accession mission, it did so by a historic amount. 
Unfortunately, three of the four services--and now I hear a 
fourth service--are on track to fail to meet their accession 
missions for 2023.
    My comments summarize some of the key insights from a large 
body of research that has been conducted on military 
recruiting, on why this crisis might be occurring, and, more 
importantly, what might be done to address it.
    Most of what is known about military recruiting is based on 
research for the other services, most notably, the Army, where, 
owing to its large recruiting requirement, problems usually 
show up first when they arise. That said, what we know about 
recruiting in the other services is likely to be relevant to 
the Coast Guard to some extent, since the Coast Guard recruits 
from a similar pool of Americans and asks those who serve to 
make similarly difficult sacrifices.
    The body of research covers decades and covers a wide array 
of topics. These include: eligibility for enlistment and the 
role of waivers; factors affecting young people's decisions to 
enlist; recruiting resource management, including enlistment 
bonuses, recruiters, advertising, and educational benefits; and 
the role of competing opportunities, including those in the 
civilian economy as well as in 2-year and 4-year college.
    It is likely each of these factors are relevant to today's 
recruiting challenges, though, to date, no rigorous, peer-
reviewed analysis has been done of the recruiting crisis. So, 
it is not yet possible to identify the leading causes of the 
recruiting crisis that account and control for all the relevant 
factors.
    Research does provide considerable insight into what the 
services should be doing in the short and long term to address 
the crisis.
    In the short run, the services should be focusing on 
policies that research shows work. First, they should meet 
congressional end-strength requirements by increasing 
retention. While the services are struggling to meet their 
recruiting goals, all of them, including the Coast Guard, are 
meeting their retention objectives overall.
    Second, the services should offer more enlistment bonuses 
and increase the dollar amount of those bonuses. Research shows 
that bonuses are effective in expanding the market and have a 
particularly large effect on channeling recruits into hard-to-
fill specialties, and they can be turned on quickly. Their 
disadvantage is that they are costly and less effective than 
advertising and recruiters, which research shows are highly 
cost-effective recruiting resources.
    Third, the services should modestly increase the share of 
recruits without a high school diploma, staying within the 
Department of Defense guidelines to only enlist at most 10 
percent of such recruits. While these recruits are more likely 
to fail to complete their enlistment contract and have other 
performance issues, research shows that a modest increase would 
have a minor overall effect on the performance of the overall 
entering cohort.
    For the long term, the armed services should focus on 
gaining a better understanding of relevant factors that are 
changing and identifying how to respond to them.
    These include, first, gaining a better understanding of 
factors explaining the decline in the labor force participation 
of young people and what that means for recruiting.
    Second, understanding why public trust in the military has 
declined and how factors explaining that decline affect 
recruiting, if at all, controlling for other factors.
    Third, identifying how to optimize marketing and 
advertising in the age of social media, developing an effective 
set of messages that connect with the target audience; and 
consider the use of nontraditional media, such as streaming 
services, to implement that marketing strategy.
    And, fourth, open the aperture of eligibility for 
enlistment by validating current enlistment standards and 
identifying whether such standards are out of date or screening 
out applicants who would otherwise be successful in the armed 
services.
    In addition, the services should aggressively experiment 
with promising new ideas for improving their recruiting 
efforts, but be equally aggressive at dropping those that fail 
to live up to their promise.
    As more data becomes available, the services should be 
doing rigorous analysis to identify the underlying causes of 
the crisis, policy effects, and where to target their future 
recruiting efforts.
    I thank the subcommittee for the opportunity to testify, 
and I look forward to your questions.
    [Ms. Asch's prepared statement follows:]

                                 
    Prepared Statement of Beth J. Asch, Ph.D.,\1\ Senior Economist,
                          RAND Corporation \2\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ The opinions and conclusions expressed in this testimony are 
the author's alone and should not be interpreted as representing those 
of the RAND Corporation or any of the sponsors of its research.
    \2\ The RAND Corporation is a research organization that develops 
solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities 
throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more 
prosperous. RAND is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and committed to the public 
interest. RAND's mission is enabled through its core values of quality 
and objectivity and its commitment to integrity and ethical behavior. 
RAND subjects its research publications to a robust and exacting 
quality-assurance process; avoids financial and other conflicts of 
interest through staff training, project screening, and a policy of 
mandatory disclosure; and pursues transparency through the open 
publication of research findings and recommendations, disclosure of the 
source of funding of published research, and policies to ensure 
intellectual independence. This testimony is not a research 
publication, but witnesses affiliated with RAND routinely draw on 
relevant research conducted in the organization.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Addressing the Recruiting Crisis in the Armed Services:
                         Insights From Research
    Chairman Webster, Ranking Member Carbajal, and distinguished 
members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify 
today. Each year, the armed services set accession missions, which are 
their goals for how many training seats they want to fill with new 
recruits for that year. The services rarely miss their accession 
missions, but in fiscal year 2022, the U.S. Coast Guard missed its 
accession mission by over 25 percent, the fourth year in a row in which 
it missed its mission.\3\ The other services also struggled. The Army 
not only missed it, it did so by a historic amount: It also achieved 
only 75 percent of its goal.\4\ If the recruiting problem persists, it 
could hurt operational effectiveness. In the shorter term, the services 
will continue to fully fill high-priority units, like deploying units, 
and the shortfall will be felt for lower-priority efforts. But if the 
problem persists, the services will likely cut force structure and 
increase stress, which will hurt their overall capability. 
Unfortunately, three of the military services are on track for another 
tough year in 2023. Specifically, the Army, Air Force, and Navy are 
reporting that they expect to fail to meet their accession missions by 
the end of this year.\5\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \3\ Seth LaGrone, ``USNI News Interview: Coast Guard Commandant 
Adm. Linda Fagan,'' USNI News, January 9, 2023.
    \4\ Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and 
Readiness, ``Department of Defense Announces Recruiting and Retention 
Numbers for Fiscal Year 2022,'' press release, September 2022.
    \5\ Jim Garamone, ``Vice Chiefs Talk Recruiting Shortfalls, 
Readiness Issues,'' DOD News, April 20, 2023.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Today, I will summarize some of the key insights from a large body 
of research that has been conducted on military recruiting, with the 
aim of helping understand why this crisis is occurring and, more 
importantly, what research indicates might be done to address it. 
Unfortunately, little of the research has focused on the Coast Guard 
specifically; instead, more research has focused on its sister 
services, especially the Army, where recruiting problems, when they 
arise, usually show up first, due in large measure to its much greater 
recruiting requirements. That said, since the Coast Guard recruits from 
a similar pool of Americans and asks those who serve to make similarly 
difficult sacrifices, it is likely that what is known about recruiting 
in the other services is relevant to the Coast Guard. Many recommended 
actions for those services are likely to also be relevant to the Coast 
Guard.
    The body of research covers decades, dates to even before the 
beginning of the all-volunteer force in 1973, and covers a wide array 
of topics.\6\ These include eligibility for enlistment and the role of 
waivers; factors affecting young people's decisions to enlist; 
recruiting resource management, including enlistment bonuses, 
recruiters, advertising, and educational benefits; and the role of 
competing opportunities, including those in the civilian economy, as 
well as those in two- and four-year college.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \6\ For a summary of recent studies, see Beth J. Asch, Navigating 
Current and Emerging Army Recruiting Challenges: What Can Research Tell 
Us? RAND Corporation, RR-3107-A, 2019, https://www.rand.org/pubs/
research_reports/RR3107.html; Beth J. Asch and John T. Warner, 
``Recruiting and Retention to Sustain a Volunteer Military Force,'' in 
David J. Galbreath and John R. Deni, eds., Routledge Handbook of 
Defence Studies, Routledge, 2018; and Curtis Gilroy, Elizabeth Clelan, 
Josh Horvath, and Christopher Gonzales, The All-Volunteer Force and the 
Need for Sustained Investment in Recruiting, CNA, April 2020.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    It is likely that each of these factors is relevant to today's 
recruiting challenges, though, to date, no publicly available peer-
reviewed analysis of the recruiting crisis of the past couple of years 
has been conducted that rigorously accounts for the full array of 
factors that may be affecting recruiting. These factors include changes 
in the civilian economy; recruiting resources; military pay; the size 
of the eligible population, including the role of the military's new 
electronic health record system, known as MHS Genesis, which more 
accurately reports past medical issues and ability of applicants to 
medically qualify for enlistment; and changing attitudes. So, it is not 
yet possible to identify the leading causes of the recruiting crisis.
    There are two factors that have received considerable attention 
that are unlikely to explain the recent difficulties.\7\ First, many 
military leaders and commentators have argued that the difficulties are 
due to the low fraction of American youth who would be eligible to 
enlist. Research indicates that only 23 percent of American young 
adults in 2020 would meet the enlistment standards of the military 
services without a waiver.\8\ But the fraction of the population that 
would be eligible has been low for decades. For example, the 
eligibility rate was estimated to be about 30 percent according to a 
2006 study.\9\ Thus, while eligibility has declined, which is 
concerning, the low rate of eligibility is an unlikely explanation for 
the recent difficulties.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \7\ See, for example, U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services, 
``Full Committee Hearing to Receive Testimony on the Recruiting 
Challenges Facing the United States Military,'' video of testimony by 
military leaders, March 22, 2023, https://www.armed-
services.senate.gov/hearings/to-receive-testimony-on-the-recruiting-
challenges-facing-the-united-states-military.
    \8\ Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and 
Readiness, ``2020 Qualified Military Available (QMA) Study,'' briefing 
slide, 2020, https://prod-media.asvabprogram.com/CEP_PDF_Contents/
Qualified_Military_Available.pdf.
    \9\ Barbara Bicksler and Lisa Nolan, ``Recruiting an All-Volunteer 
Force: The Need for Sustained Investment in Recruiting Resources,'' 
Strategic Analysis, Policy Perspectives, Vol. 1, No. 1, September 2006.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    A second factor that leaders have identified as the cause of the 
recruiting crisis is the low propensity of American youth to enlist. 
Since 2001, the Joint Advertising, Market Research and Studies group 
within the Department of Defense (DoD) has conducted a roughly 
quarterly survey of American young people ages 16 to 21 that asks them, 
``How likely is it that you will be serving in the military in the next 
few years?'' If they report ``definitely'' or ``probably,'' they are 
categorized as being positively propensed, meaning they want to join 
the military. In spring 2022, only 10 percent of American youth 
indicated that they were positively propensed to serve.\10\ But there 
are two problems with the argument that low propensity is the reason 
for the recent recruiting crisis. First, enlistment propensity has been 
low for decades. The percentage of youth who are positively propensed 
increases and decreases over time but has been at most 15 percent since 
2004, and the services have enjoyed some strong recruiting years since 
then.\11\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \10\ The DoD survey is known as the DoD Youth Poll. Prior to 2001, 
DoD measured propensity using an alternative survey, known as the Youth 
Attitude Tracking Study. Consequently, DoD has propensity data dating 
back to the 1970s. The percentage of young people expressing a positive 
propensity varies across the services and over time within a service 
but has been mostly around 10 percent in aggregate in recent years. The 
trend in propensity since 2001 can be found in Office of People 
Analytics, ``Spring 2022 Propensity Update,'' presentation slides, U.S. 
Department of Defense, February 23, 2023.
    \11\ For example, the Army exceeded its total accession mission by 
4 percent in 2012 and recruited 100 percent high school diploma 
graduates and 64 percent with above-average scores on the Armed Forces 
Qualification Test (AFQT), yet propensity hovered around 13 to 14 
percent in 2012 (Lawrence Kapp, ``Recruiting and Retention: An Overview 
of FY2011 and FY2012 Results for Active and Reserve Component Enlisted 
Personnel,'' Congressional Research Service, 7-5700, RL32965, May 2013; 
Office of People Analytics, ``Spring 2022 Propensity Update,'' 
presentation slides, U.S. Department of Defense, February 23, 2023).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Second, available research indicates that most recruits come from 
the negatively propensed group, not the positively propensed group. 
When the DoD survey data on propensity are linked with DoD's 
administrative records of enlistments, the data reveal that positively 
propensed people are more likely to enlist.\12\ But since most people--
90 percent in 2022--are in the negatively propensed group, these 
results imply that most enlistments would come from the negative group. 
This finding helps explain why recruiting is so challenging: A large 
part of the military recruiting effort involves converting youth who 
are negatively propensed to join the military into actual enlistments. 
Not surprisingly, then, recruiting is also costly. For example, Army 
recruiting costs were $1.5 billion annually on average between 2001 and 
2014 in 2016 dollars.\13\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \12\ Analysis of youth attitude tracking survey data shows that 33 
percent of those said they ``definitely will'' enlist actually enlisted 
while 17 percent of those who said they ``probably will'' enlist 
actually enlisted. In contrast, only 5 percent of those with negative 
propensity actually enlisted (Bruce Orvis, Martin Gahart, and Alvin 
Ludwig, Validity and Usefulness of Enlistment Intention Information, 
RAND Corporation, R-3775-FMP, 1992).
    \13\ David Knapp, Bruce R. Orvis, Christopher E. Maerzluft, and 
Tiffany Tsai, Resources Required to Meet the U.S. Army's Enlisted 
Recruiting Requirements Under Alternative Recruiting Goals, Conditions, 
and Eligibility Policies, RAND Corporation, RR-2364-A, 2018, https://
www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2364.html.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
         Strategies for Addressing the Crisis in the Short Term
    While rigorous analysis of the drivers of the crisis has yet to be 
done, past research can provide insight into what the armed services 
might do about the crisis in the short and long terms. In the short 
term, the services should focus on policies that research shows are 
effective.
    First, the services should meet end strength mandated by Congress 
by increasing retention. Fortunately, notwithstanding pockets of 
retention problems in some skill areas, such as pilots, retention in 
each service, including the Coast Guard,\14\ has been strong. Even the 
Army, which missed its recruiting mission in 2018 and 2022, exceeded 
its retention goals from 2017 to 2022 and continues to do so, and it 
has set high retention goals for 2023. The Coast Guard should also set 
aggressive retention goals to meet end strength given its recruiting 
problems.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \14\ Fagan, 2022.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Second, the services should offer more people enlistment bonuses 
and increase the dollar amounts of those bonuses. Research shows that 
enlistment bonuses expand the supply of recruits overall and have an 
especially large effect when targeted to recruits who choose to train 
in critical specialties.\15\ An important advantage of enlistment 
bonuses, over and above their enlistment expansion effects, is that 
they can be deployed quickly when recruiting shortfalls arise, because 
the services have authority to reprogram or realign funds in their 
personnel budgets to make more bonus payments than originally funded 
without getting prior congressional approval. However, increasing 
enlistment bonuses is not a good long-term strategy when used alone 
because they are costly and less effective than other resources, 
especially recruiters and advertising.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \15\ Beth J. Asch, Paul Heaton, James Hosek, Francisco Martorell, 
Curtis Simon, and John T. Warner, Cash Incentives and Military 
Enlistment, Attrition, and Reenlistment, RAND Corporation, MG-950-OSD, 
2010, https://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG950.html; Knapp et al., 
2018; J. Michael Polich, James N. Dertouzos, and S. James Press, The 
Enlistment Bonus Experiment, RAND Corporation, R-3353-FMP, 1986, 
https://www.rand.org/pubs/reports/R3353.html; Curtis J. Simon and John 
T. Warner, Cash Today or College Tomorrow? Enlistment Incentives and 
Intertemporal Choice in the Army and Navy, Clemson University, 2003.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    In the context of offering more money to enlist, it is useful to 
also mention what the research on recruiting has to say about military 
pay, since it is sometimes argued that military pay should be increased 
to address the recruiting crisis. Research shows that increasing 
military pay is the least cost-effective way to improve recruiting 
relative to other policies, including bonuses, recruiters, advertising, 
and educational benefits.\16\ While the research shows that the supply 
of high-quality enlistments to the armed services increases with 
increases in military pay relative to civilian pay, such increases are 
an expensive policy. To prevent pay compression, Congress would need to 
increase pay not just for the most-junior enlisted personnel but for 
all personnel across the force. In addition, unlike bonuses, those pay 
raises would be permanent and factor into future pay raises. 
Furthermore, they would factor into other benefits, such as retired 
pay. Increasing pay as a means of solving recruiting problems only 
begins to make sense when the services are also experiencing widespread 
retention problems, as was the case in the late 1990s.\17\ Today, there 
is no evidence of widespread retention problems.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \16\ Asch et al., 2010; Simon and Warner, 2003; Curtis J. Simon and 
John T. Warner, ``Managing the All-Volunteer Force in a Time of War,'' 
Economics of Peace and Security Journal, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2007; John T. 
Warner, Curtis J. Simon, and Deborah M. Payne, Enlistment Supply in the 
1990's: A Study of the Navy College Fund and Other Enlistment Incentive 
Programs, Defense Manpower Data Center, DMDC Report No. 2000-015, April 
2001.
    \17\ Beth J. Asch, Setting Military Compensation to Support 
Recruitment, Retention, and Performance, RAND Corporation, RR-3197-A, 
2019, https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR3197.html; James 
Hosek, Beth J. Asch, and Michael G. Mattock, Should the Increase in 
Military Pay Be Slowed? RAND Corporation, TR-1185-OSD, 2012, https://
www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/TR1185.html.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Studies also find that military advertising is effective in 
expanding the supply of high-quality enlistments.\18\ Research shows 
that the effectiveness varies with media type and the scale of 
advertising and that advertising is more cost-effective than bonuses 
and pay increases in generating enlistments. A disadvantage of 
advertising as a short-term recruiting policy is that it takes time to 
get the authority to launch an advertising campaign and then to develop 
and deploy an effective campaign, especially in a fragmented market 
where different messages may resonate with different populations.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \18\ James N. Dertouzos and Steven Garber, Is Military Advertising 
Effective? An Estimation Methodology and Applications to Recruiting in 
the 1980s and 90s, RAND Corporation, MR-1591-OSD, 2003, https://
www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1591.html; Knapp et al., 2018.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Another important short-term strategy supported by research is 
expanding the size of the recruiter force. Studies consistently find 
that high-quality enlistments increase with the number of production 
recruiters, other factors held constant.\19\ The research also points 
to the importance of recruiter management. That is, the positive 
relationship between recruiters and enlistments is not automatic. 
Recruiters compose a workforce, and they are a human resource that must 
be properly managed to be effective and efficient.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \19\ Asch et al., 2010; Knapp et al., 2018; Simon and Warner, 2003; 
Simon and Warner, 2007; Warner, Simon, and Payne, 2001.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    An important aspect of recruiter management is an incentive system 
that provides recruiters with incentives to be productive. Research 
shows that these incentive systems affect recruiter productivity in 
terms of the quality, number, and timing of enlistments.\20\ Recruiters 
are incentivized to increase effort when these plans are designed 
properly, but the plans can have perverse unintended effects if not 
designed well. For example, one study found that Army recruit screening 
was poorer at the end of the recruiting month, when recruiters are 
incentivized to meet their monthly recruiting missions.\21\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \20\ Jeremy Arkes and Jesse M. Cunha, ``Workplace Goals and Output 
Quality: Evidence from Time-Constrained Recruiting Goals in the US 
Navy,'' Defence and Peace Economics, Vol. 26, No. 5, 2015; Beth J. 
Asch, ``Do Incentives Matter? The Case of Navy Recruiters,'' Industrial 
and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 43, No. 3, February 1990; Beth J. Asch 
and Paul Heaton, An Analysis of the Incidence of Recruiter 
Irregularities, RAND Corporation, TR-827-OSD, 2010, https://
www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/TR827.html; Beth J. Asch and Lynn 
A. Karoly, The Role of the Job Counselor in the Military Enlistment 
Process, RAND Corporation, MR-315-P&R, 1993, https://www.rand.org/pubs/
monograph_reports/MR315.html.
    \21\ Asch and Heaton, 2010.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The powerful effect of incentive plans (independent of quotas) was 
documented in an older study of Army guidance counselors.\22\ A key 
responsibility of guidance counselors is to channel applicants into the 
Army's priority occupations. During the period under study, guidance 
counselors were under an incentive plan that offered counselors 
additional points for selling a high-priority occupation. The study 
found that simply offering five more incentive plan points for selling 
a particular occupation was more than twice as effective as offering an 
enlistment bonus to a recruit. That is, it was more effective to give 
the seller (the guidance counselor) an incentive to ``sell'' the 
occupation than it was to give the buyer (the recruit) an incentive to 
``buy'' the occupation. Furthermore, the budget outlay is dramatically 
lower; the cost of enlistment bonuses is substantial, while the cost of 
guidance counselor points is minimal. The study also found that the 
magnitude of the skill-channeling effect of bonuses depends crucially 
on the incentives of the guidance counselors.\23\ Controlling for 
counselor effort, the estimated skill-channeling effect of bonuses was 
two-thirds lower.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \22\ Asch and Karoly, 1993.
    \23\ Bonuses not only increase the number of enlistments but also 
channel recruits into critical skill areas, since they are often 
offered only to recruits who agree to enter specific skill areas 
(Polich, Dertouzos, and Press, 1986).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Finally, the services have stated that they will not lower 
enlistment standards to solve the recruiting crisis. But a good short-
term strategy would be to recruit more young people without high school 
diplomas. The Office of the Secretary of Defense sets a ceiling on the 
share of recruits that the military services can enlist without high 
school diplomas, equal to 10 percent.\24\ The reason for the ceiling is 
that research shows that recruits without high school diplomas are more 
likely than those with diplomas to drop out and fail to complete their 
military enlistment obligations.\25\ In the Army, RAND research found 
that the attrition rate for nongraduates was a third higher than for 
graduates, increasing from 33 percent to 44 percent.\26\ Research from 
the civilian economy shows similar qualitative results: Specifically, 
GED holders have shorter job tenures than high school graduates do. 
They also have lower wages and are comparable to high school dropouts 
in terms of their labor market outcomes.\27\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \24\ Specifically, ``DoD sets two recruit quality benchmarks for 
the population of accessions each [fiscal year]: 90 percent with Tier 1 
educational credentials (e.g., primarily high school diplomas) and 60 
percent with Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) scores at or above 
the 50th percentile'' (Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for 
Personnel and Readiness, Population Representation in the Military 
Services, Fiscal Year 2019 Summary Report, 2021, p. 4). Consequently, 
DoD requires that, at most, 10 percent of recruits can be ``non-Tier 
1'' accessions, which include high school dropouts, as well as those 
with General Educational Development (GED) certificates (Office of the 
Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, 2021).
    \25\ Beth J. Asch, Michael L. Hansen, Rosanna Smart, David Knapp, 
and Daniel Schwam, An Empirical Assessment of the U.S. Army's 
Enlistment Waiver Policies: An Examination in Light of Emerging 
Societal Trends in Behavioral Health and the Legalization of Marijuana, 
RAND Corporation, RR-4431-A, 2021, https://www.rand.org/pubs/
research_reports/RR4431.html; Richard J. Buddin, Success of First-Term 
Soldiers: The Effects of Recruiting Practices and Recruit 
Characteristics, RAND Corporation, MG-262-A, 2005, https://
www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG262.html; Bruce R. Orvis, Christopher E. 
Maerzluft, Sung-Bou Kim, Michael G. Shanley, and Heather Krull, 
Prospective Outcome Assessment for Alternative Recruit Selection 
Policies, RAND Corporation, RR-2267-A, 2018, https://www.rand.org/pubs/
research_reports/RR2267.html.
    \26\ Orvis et al., 2018.
    \27\ Stephen V. Cameron and James J. Heckman, ``The Nonequivalence 
of High School Equivalents,'' Journal of Labor Economics, Vol. 11, No. 
1, Part 1: Essays in Honor of Jacob Mincer, January 1993.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Despite their higher predicted attrition rate, increasing the share 
of accessions without high school diplomas is a sensible short-term 
strategy given the recent crisis. This is because the services have 
historically been below the 10-percent cap. For example, the Army has 
been below the ceiling since 2010. In 2022, the Army was at 6 percent, 
even despite missing its recruiting mission in 2022. The Coast Guard in 
2018, the year for which data are available, recruited less than 2 
percent nongraduates, far below the 10-percent cap.\28\ Therefore, 
increasing this percentage to 10 percent would still be within the DoD 
standard. But more importantly, RAND research shows that across all 
recruits who enter in a year, an increase from 5 to 10 percent in the 
Army is predicted to have only a slight effect on the overall attrition 
rate of that entering cohort that translates to about a one-half-
percentage point increase in the overall attrition rate.\29\ While the 
services should always prioritize the enlistment of higher-quality 
recruits--those with at least a high school diploma and who score in 
the top half of the test score distribution of the AFQT--since they 
perform better and are less likely to drop from service, a modest 
increase in the enlistment of GED holders within the 10-percent cap 
could lower the risk of failing to meet accession missions in the 
current crisis, with minimal implications for readiness.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \28\ Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and 
Readiness, 2021, Appendix E.
    \29\ Orvis et al., 2018.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
         Strategies for Addressing the Crisis in the Long Term
    The short-term strategies are aimed at getting through the coming 
year. For the long term, the armed services should focus on gaining a 
better understanding of relevant factors that are changing and 
identifying how to respond.
    Research shows that improvements in the civilian economy, as 
measured by declines in the civilian unemployment rate, hurt recruiting 
success among high-quality applicants, all else equal, and, of course, 
the U.S. economy is currently strong, as measured by the civilian 
unemployment rate.\30\ The armed services understand that good civilian 
opportunities adversely affect the supply of high-quality enlistments 
and help explain why recruiting is so difficult right now. But what are 
less understood by the armed services are some major shifts occurring 
in the U.S. labor market, especially for young men, who traditionally 
account for most enlistments (though the share of female recruits has 
been increasing).\31\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \30\ Asch et al., 2010; Knapp et al., 2018; Simon and Warner, 2003; 
Simon and Warner, 2007; Warner, Simon, and Payne, 2001.
    \31\ Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and 
Readiness, ``Population Representation in the Military Services,'' 
webpage with links to reports from 1997 to 2017, undated, https://
prhome.defense.gov/M-RA/Inside-M-RA/MPP/Accession-Policy/Pop-Rep/.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Perhaps the biggest shift relevant to the armed services is the 
decline since 2000 in the share of young men who are employed or 
looking for work--what economists call the labor force participation 
rate. Labor economists have devoted considerable effort to 
understanding why fewer people are working or looking for work, as well 
as to understanding what young men are doing with their time instead 
and how they might be supporting themselves. Research on these 
questions is still underway, but available research provides some 
insights.\32\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \32\ Recent research documenting the decline and summarizing the 
academic literature on the causes can be found in Katharine G. Abraham 
and Melissa S. Kearney, ``Explaining the Decline in the US Employment-
to-Population Ratio: A Review of the Evidence,'' Journal of Economic 
Literature, Vol. 58, No. 3, September 2020; Ariel J. Binder and John 
Bound, ``The Declining Labor Market Prospects of Less-Educated Men,'' 
Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 33, No. 2, Spring 2019; Michael 
Dotsey, Shigeru Fujita, and Leena Rudanko, ``Where Is Everybody? The 
Shrinking Labor Force Participation Rate,'' Economic Insights, Federal 
Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, 2017; Alan B. Krueger, ``Where Have All 
the Workers Gone? An Inquiry into the Decline of the U.S. Labor Force 
Participation Rate,'' Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Fall 2017; 
and Francisco Perez-Arce and Maria J. Prados, ``The Decline in the U.S. 
Labor Force Participation Rate: A Literature Review,'' Journal of 
Economic Surveys, Vol. 35, No. 2, 2021.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Among the effects that research can quantify based on existing 
evidence, the research suggests that the factors driving the drop in 
the labor force participation rate are varied. They include factors 
that have reduced the demand for workers, such as import competition 
from China that has reduced manufacturing jobs, technological 
improvements that substitute industrial robots for workers, and rising 
minimum wage policies. They also include factors that have reduced the 
supply of workers, such as increased opioid prescriptions, increased 
receipt of disability benefits, and increased rates of incarceration. 
Research indicates that, in terms of how they spend their time and how 
they support themselves, younger men, ages 21 to 30, exhibited a sharp 
increase between 2000 and 2017 in the time devoted to gaming and 
leisure recreational computing,\33\ while the Census Bureau reports 
that the share of men ages 25 to 34 living at home rose 45 percent 
between 2000 and 2022.\34\ An important question that requires further 
investigation and is being considered by the upcoming 14th Quadrennial 
Review of Military Compensation is what these labor market shifts mean 
for recruiting for the armed services and the setting of military 
compensation.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \33\ Mark Aguiar, Mark Bils, Kerwin Kofi Charles, and Erik Hurst, 
``Leisure Luxuries and the Labor Supply of Young Men,'' Journal of 
Political Economy, Vol. 129, No. 2, February 2021.
    \34\ U.S. Census Bureau, ``Table AD-1. Young Adults, 18-34 Years 
Old, Living at Home: 1960 to Present,'' undated, https://
www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/families/adults.html.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Another notable recent trend is the decline in the share of 
Americans reporting a high level of trust in the U.S. military, 
documented in several recent surveys.\35\ The decline is part of a 
larger trend of a decline in trust among Americans in institutions in 
general--and, from the military's perspective, part of an ongoing 
concern about a divide between the military and the civilian population 
in terms of culture, experiences, and values. The causes of this 
decline in trust have been a subject of considerable commentary among 
senior leaders, think tanks, and news outlets who have attributed the 
decline to such factors as the risks associated with service, 
specifically sexual assault or harassment, posttraumatic stress 
disorder, traumatic brain injury, suicide, and food insecurity. Other 
factors mentioned have been the handling of the withdrawal of forces 
from Afghanistan; extremist views in the military; ``woke'' diversity, 
equity, and inclusion initiatives; and the handling of the COVID-19 
vaccine mandate.\36\ Like other facets of the recruiting crisis, 
rigorous research has not yet been conducted that provides empirical 
support that these or other factors explain the services' recent 
recruiting challenges, holding constant other factors that have 
changed, such as the civilian economy.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \35\ Jeffrey M. Jones, ``Confidence in U.S. Institutions Down; 
Average at New Low,'' Gallup, July 5, 2022; Brian Kennedy, Alec Tyson, 
and Cary Funk, ``Americans' Trust in Scientists, Other Groups 
Declines,'' Pew Research Center, February 15, 2022; Ronald Reagan 
Presidential Foundation and Institute, ``2022 Reagan National Defense 
Survey,'' webpage, undated, https://www.reaganfoundation.org/reagan-
institute/centers/peace-through-strength/reagan-institute-national-
defense-survey/.
    \36\ David Barno and Nora Bensahel, ``Addressing the U.S. Military 
Recruiting Crisis,'' War on the Rocks, March 10, 2023; Steve Beynon, 
``Army Secretary Blames Bad Press for Making Recruiting Woes Worse,'' 
Military.com, September 14, 2022; Rebecca Kheel, ``Vaccine Mandate Is 
Hurting Recruiting, Top Marine General Says,'' Military.com, December 
4, 2022; Hope Hodge Seck, ``Facing a `Perfect Storm': The Military 
Recruiting Crisis,'' Military Officers Association of America, December 
14, 2022; Thomas Spoehr, ``The Rise of Wokeness in the Military,'' 
Heritage Foundation, September 30, 2022.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Another area where the services need a better understanding is 
effective marketing in digital media. Each service has an internet 
presence, such as the gocoastguard.com website, to learn about the job 
requirements and benefits of service. But the services need to optimize 
their marketing strategy to make the best use of social media, such as 
Instagram and video games and other digital platforms where young 
people spend time. They need to develop effective marketing messages 
that not only inform but also speak to the values and life aspirations 
of the target audiences, and the messages must recognize the diversity 
of the market in terms of those values. The marketing strategy must 
also consider approaches other than the traditional roadside billboard 
and Super Bowl ad, such as military-themed shows on streaming services 
and the use of celebrities and sports figures as spokespeople. Finally, 
the services should mobilize veterans and active-duty members in an 
organized way to tell their stories about what service has meant to 
them and their families.
    Another area requiring attention is the validity of current 
enlistment standards. DoD and the Department of Homeland Security 
should revalidate these standards to ensure that the analysis 
underlying them is current, rigorous, and peer-reviewed and that the 
standards are not screening out applicants who would otherwise perform 
successfully in the armed services. DoD is currently piloting a program 
to allow recruits who would otherwise require a waiver for certain 
medical conditions to enter without a waiver.\37\ One standard that 
should be revalidated is the AFQT. An applicant's AFQT score reflects 
their standing relative to the national population of Americans ages 18 
to 23.\38\ Applicants with scores below 10 and non-high school 
graduates with scores below 30 are ineligible to enlist, and DoD 
requires that the services enlist at least 60 percent of recruits with 
scores above 50. The AFQT was last normed using 1997 data from the 
National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. It is unclear how renorming will 
affect eligibility to enlist, but test scores for 4th graders on the 
National Assessment of Educational Progress increased from 2000 to 
2013, stagnated with some decline thereafter, and then declined during 
COVID-19.\39\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \37\ Rose L. Thayer, ``Pentagon Reviews Whether 38 Medical 
Conditions Should Remain Disqualifiers for Military Service,'' Stars 
and Stripes, March 7, 2023.
    \38\ Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Force 
Management Policy, ``Chapter 2: The Recruiting Process,'' Population 
Representation in the Military Services, U.S. Department of Defense, 
November 2000, https://prhome.defense.gov/portals/52/Documents/POPREP/
poprep99/html/chapter2/c2_recruiting.html.
    \39\ Michael Hansen, Elizabeth Mann Levesque, Jon Valant, and Diana 
Quintero, ``2018 Brown Center Report on American Education: Trends in 
NAEP Math, Reading, and Civics Scores,'' Brookings Institution, June 
27, 2018; The Nation's Report Card, ``Reading and Mathematics Scores 
Decline During COVID-19 Pandemic,'' undated, https://
www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/ltt/2022/#more-about.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               Conclusion
    The key recommendations and areas for consideration are for the 
armed services, including the Coast Guard, to adopt short-term and 
long-term approaches to addressing the recruiting crisis.
    In the short term, the services should focus on policies that 
research shows are effective:
      They should meet congressional end strength requirements 
by increasing retention. While the services are struggling to meet 
recruiting goals, all of them, including the Coast Guard, are meeting 
their retention objectives.
      The services should offer more enlistment bonuses and 
increase the dollar amounts of the bonuses. Research shows that bonuses 
expand the market and have a particularly large effect on channeling 
recruits into hard-to-fill specialties. Bonuses are a rapid-response 
policy because the services have the flexibility to turn them on 
quickly, but their disadvantage is that they are costly and less 
effective than other recruiting resources.
      The services should also focus in the short term on 
increasing their advertising and the size of their recruiter force; 
research shows that doing so increases enlistments and that these are 
cost-effective policies relative to increasing bonuses and pay.
      The services should modestly increase the share of 
recruits without high school diplomas, staying within the DoD 
guidelines to enlist at most only 10 percent of such recruits. While 
these recruits are more likely than recruits with high school diplomas 
to fail to complete their enlistment contracts and to have other 
performance issues, increasing their share is likely to have a minor 
effect on the performance of the entering cohort given that their share 
is so small. A modest increase in non-diploma graduate recruits should 
not take away from the overall priority given to high-quality 
enlistments, since such recruits perform better and are more likely to 
stay in service.

    In the long term, the armed services should focus on gaining a 
better understanding of relevant factors that are changing and 
identifying how to respond. This includes
      gaining a better understanding of the factors explaining 
the decline in the labor force participation of young people and other 
shifts in the labor market and what they mean for recruiting
      understanding why public trust in the military has 
declined and how the factors explaining that decline affect recruiting, 
if at all, controlling for other factors
      identifying how to optimize marketing and advertising in 
the age of social media, developing an effective set of messages that 
connect with the target markets, and considering the use of 
nontraditional media to implement the marketing strategy
      opening the aperture of eligibility for enlistment by 
validating current enlistment standards and identifying whether some 
standards are out of date or are screening out applicants who would 
otherwise be successful in the armed services.

    In addition, the services should aggressively experiment with 
promising new ideas for improving their recruiting efforts but be 
equally aggressive at dropping those that fail to live up to their 
promise. As more data become available, rigorous analysis will be 
needed to identify the underlying causes of the crisis, policy effects, 
and where to target future recruiting efforts.
    I thank the subcommittee for the opportunity to testify, and I look 
forward to your questions.

    Mr. Webster of Florida. Thank you all for your testimony.
    And we will turn now to the questions for the panel. I will 
recognize myself for 5 minutes for the first set of questions.
    Vice Admiral Thomas, the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 
2023, reported by the committee last month, includes $9 million 
for the Coast Guard to streamline the application process.
    How does the system compare with the systems used by other 
armed services? And does the current system negatively impact 
recruiting efforts?
    Admiral Thomas. Thank you for the question, Chairman. I am 
not exactly sure which system you are referring to in that 
question. Are you talking about the system that we use to bring 
recruits into the Service?
    Mr. Webster of Florida. Yes.
    Admiral Thomas. So, we are modernizing that system. We are 
about to launch in June an application that is called Gangway 
that will allow our recruiters to do a better job of 
maintaining contact with potential recruits.
    In a manner now that is all on paper, this new technology 
will allow them to automatically send texts to our potential 
recruits and keep in contact with them; and then, also, not 
require recruits to come into an office, but we can bring the 
office to them, including all the recruitment paperwork that 
can be signed digitally.
    This is what the other services are doing. In fact, we are 
borrowing a capability that the Army developed, in order to 
bring the modern tools to our recruiters.
    Mr. Webster of Florida. So, is the money we authorized 
increasing your recruiting numbers?
    Admiral Thomas. Well, certainly, we have gotten money in 
fiscal year 2023 and 2024 that we have been using for a number 
of purposes: increased recruiting but also increased retention.
    So, we have added recruiters to our fleet. We have opened 
new recruiting offices. We have opened one new one; we have 
another six or so in the queue to open up. We have increased 
bonuses. We have increased the number of people that we have 
doing cold-calling.
    So, yes, the money has definitely been helpful. And we have 
seen an increase in the numbers in terms of people getting to 
boot camp.
    Mr. Webster of Florida. So, what progress have you made 
using the Junior ROTC? And how has that, kind of, worked out?
    Admiral Thomas. Well, thank you for that question, because, 
as I mentioned, we have six active JROTC units currently. That 
covers two of our Coast Guard districts. We have a requirement 
to have one in each district by the end of 2025. We are on 
track to meet that requirement. We should have, as I mentioned, 
four more JROTC units stood up by the beginning of the next 
academic year.
    Right now, we have two former JROTC cadets at our Coast 
Guard Academy. We have one at one of our prep schools, so, they 
will be at the Coast Guard Academy.
    And JROTC is a great way for us to get people into the 
Coast Guard, but it is also a great way for us to contribute to 
those communities. So, we are excited about it and moving 
forward.
    Mr. Webster of Florida. Rear Admiral Phillips, the Coast 
Guard Authorization Act of 2023, as reported by this committee, 
authorized $11 million for the Coast Guard to modernize its 
outdated Merchant Mariner Licensing and Documentation System.
    As MARAD relies on the Coast Guard's system to determine 
the number of available mariners for surge sealift operations, 
can you explain what capabilities MARAD needs from the system 
to make these determinations?
    Admiral Phillips. Mr. Chairman, thank you for that 
question.
    As you highlighted, in the fiscal year 2023 NDAA, we are 
tasked to work with TRANSCOM to provide a requirements document 
to the Coast Guard in support of our needs. And we are doing 
that, and they will have that very shortly. They are certainly 
aware of it.
    Putting it succinctly, we need an understanding of how many 
mariners there are and what qualification levels they hold, 
their medical status, and, as an aside and something we will 
need to do ourselves, their willingness to sail in times of 
crisis.
    The current Coast Guard database is not queryable, and we 
are very optimistic, working with the Coast Guard, that the new 
database will permit us to query under such circumstances to 
have a better understanding of where we stand related to 
qualified mariners.
    Mr. Webster of Florida. Thank you very much.
    Ranking Member Larsen, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Larsen of Washington. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
    On that point, I have a question for Admiral Thomas.
    If Congress were to fund the $11 million for the unfunded 
priorities list to modernize the credentialing system, how 
would that affect processing time? How quickly could you 
modernize to a standard to do a more efficient job of approving 
credentials?
    Admiral Thomas. Thank you for the question, Congressman. 
And although that is not currently my portfolio, I have worked 
in that area before, so, I am familiar. And we have a system 
now that was built in the nineties, and it was----
    Mr. Larsen of Washington [interrupting]. In the 1990s?
    Admiral Thomas. Yes, sir. Right.
    Mr. Larsen of Washington. Yes. Thanks.
    Admiral Thomas. The $11 million that is on the UPL is a 
downpayment to the system that we actually need to build. And 
we are prepared to move out. We have a requirements working 
group that is working with MARAD and MSC. That will absolutely 
improve our processing time, but it will also absolutely 
improve the depth of knowledge about that particular workforce.
    So, right now I could not, for example, tell you how many 
mariners are operating on a medical waiver associated with 
pacemakers. Can't do that. But when we build the new modern 
system, we will be able to answer a lot of those types of 
questions.
    Mr. Larsen of Washington. If $11 million is a start, what 
is the end?
    Admiral Thomas. Well, that is difficult to know right now 
until we have finalized the requirements, but it is somewhere 
between $11 million and $16 million, we think. And we are 
working with our FACAs, NMERPAC, et cetera, to really refine 
what those requirements are.
    Mr. Larsen of Washington. Yes. Does $11 million--you say it 
gets you started. Does it get us a result on moving quicker on 
credentialing? Or do we have to wait for the whole thing to get 
done?
    Admiral Thomas. Oh, no, sir. That absolutely is scalable. 
And with $11 million, we ought to move out.
    Mr. Larsen of Washington. Yes.
    For Ms. MacLeod from GAO, can you talk a little bit more 
about--the Coast Guard might be able to answer this, too, but--
enlisted versus officers, and are there differences in ability 
to recruit depending on an enlisted person versus an officer?
    Ms. MacLeod. Our work to date has really focused on the 
retention of the workforce, and we have found that recruiting 
additional civilian personnel for certain workforces can prove 
to be a benefit to the Coast Guard. But I do look forward to 
our upcoming studies of recruitment and retention issues within 
the Coast Guard.
    Mr. Larsen of Washington. On the cyber workforce, I know 
that the National Guard provides support as well as frontline 
cyber support in the military. Is there something similar that 
can apply to the Coast Guard?
    Ms. MacLeod. Yes. I mean, the Coast Guard is in line with 
what we have observed with other Federal agencies in terms of 
bringing its workforce up to speed and up to date and filling 
those necessary positions with personnel.
    The Federal Government as a whole is a bit behind in this 
area, and the Coast Guard is one of those agencies as well.
    Mr. Larsen of Washington. Yes. Admiral Thomas, could you 
address that?
    Admiral Thomas. Yes, Congressman, absolutely.
    So, first, with regard to officer recruiting, we have a 
deficit in our officer corps, but it is not because of a 
recruiting problem. It is because of capacity at our accession 
points. We have no problem getting people to want to come into 
the Coast Guard to be an officer, but we are at max capacity.
    With regard to our cyber workforce, we just recently stood 
up the first, what we call, functional flotilla in our Coast 
Guard auxiliary that are doing cyber work for us. These are 
cyber professionals in their real life, and they volunteer for 
the Coast Guard. And we also have a Reserve contingent in our 
cyber workforce.
    We are challenged, like everyone, to retain highly trained 
cyber professionals, but that is where we focus our bonuses and 
education that comes with obligations. And so, we are trying to 
manage it that way.
    Mr. Larsen of Washington. Yes.
    Administrator Phillips, you mentioned in your testimony the 
calls for a legislative change that relates to the requirement 
that vessels be flagged in the U.S. for 3 years before carrying 
food aid cargoes.
    How would that change benefit the fleet and increase 
opportunities for merchant mariners?
    Admiral Phillips. Congressman, thank you for that question, 
sir.
    It would give us more access to more vessels. And we 
believe there are cargoes that they could carry, particularly 
in the civilian agency side, as you mentioned--USAID, USDA. We 
believe there is some capacity there. And so, flagging in 
additional vessels that could work with those agencies to carry 
that capacity will bring more mariners into the fleet. And, as 
you are aware, more ships generates more mariners because of 
the need.
    Mr. Larsen of Washington. Thanks.
    Thank you, Mr. Chair. I yield back.
    Mr. Webster of Florida. I am advised we have a couple of 
Coast Guard Academy cadets here, and I would like you to 
identify yourself.
    Ezra Tetreault?
    Mr. Tetreault. Yes, Chairman, right here. Thank you.
    Mr. Webster of Florida. Thanks for coming.
    OK. Somebody grab him.
    [Laughter.]
    Admiral Thomas. We got him, sir.
    Mr. Webster of Florida. And there is John Bragaw?
    Mr. Bragaw. Yes, sir, I am right here. Thank you.
    Mr. Webster of Florida. Thanks for coming today. Good to 
see you.
    Mr. Bragaw. Thank you, sir.
    Mr. Webster of Florida. Representative Babin, you are 
recognized for 5 minutes.
    Dr. Babin. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate 
it.
    Thank you all, witnesses. I appreciate you being here as 
well.
    The U.S. Coast Guard and American merchant mariners both 
are vital to keeping our ships moving and our waterways safe. 
However, as your testimony states, recruiting is way down, and 
we members of the subcommittee are deeply concerned with that.
    And so, my first set of questions--Admiral Phillips, thank 
you for being here as well. I am hoping to get some 
clarification from you on an employee of the U.S. Merchant 
Marine Academy, which I know you have jurisdiction over.
    Mr. Anton Tripolskii, the Merchant Marine Academy's sexual 
assault prevention and response director, has been outspoken, 
very outspoken, about race and gender in the United States. He 
has made it clear that he believes that White males--the same 
White males that make up the majority of the U.S. merchant 
marine--are to blame for sexual violence in the United States.
    In fact, Mr. Tripolskii, who is White and male, has made 
these kinds of comments repeatedly. He has been very vocal on 
Twitter, and, as we all know, once you tweet something on 
Twitter, it is there forever.
    And so, that means that the Merchant Marine Academy should 
have been very aware of his comments on Twitter before they 
hired him. And if they did, in fact, see his comments and then 
decided to hire him, these comments must not be of concern to 
those who are in charge of hiring the Academy's faculty and 
staff.
    So, I am asking you: Do you believe that ``misogyny and 
racism grow from the same White, male root,'' quote/unquote, as 
Mr. Tripolskii stated?
    Admiral Phillips. Congressman, thank you for that question. 
And of course we are in receipt of your letter on this topic.
    Dr. Babin. Yes, ma'am.
    Admiral Phillips. And we have seen the tweet in that letter 
that is referred to that is several years old.
    Irrespective of what this employee of the Academy may have 
done in the past, my focus and that of Vice Admiral Nunan, who 
is the superintendent, are looking towards the future and, in 
that context, building an environment of value that includes 
inclusiveness of all midshipmen, staff, parents, faculty, 
alumni at the Academy, that values people's participation based 
on their professionalism and skill, and that we build a team to 
produce the world's finest merchant mariners, which are vital 
to the Nation's economic and national security.
    So, we are looking to the future here, and we are not----
    Dr. Babin [interrupting]. Well, I am not understanding what 
your answer is.
    Admiral Phillips [continuing]. Interested in reliving the 
past, so that we can move forward with a collective body to 
graduate, again----
    Dr. Babin [interrupting]. My question----
    Admiral Phillips [continuing]. The finest mariners.
    Dr. Babin. My question, Admiral, is: Do you believe that 
misogyny and racism grow from the same White, male root, as 
this gentleman who is employed as someone in control of the way 
things are being done there at the Merchant Marine Academy--do 
you believe that what he said is true? Yes or no?
    Admiral Phillips. Well, sir, his statements were made a 
number of years ago, and I have no indication that they apply 
to his current position.
    And, again, I have spoken with Vice Admiral Nunan. We are 
moving forward with a collective future for the Academy that 
values everyone, including White men, for their professionalism 
and skill and ensures that we have a team to move forward in 
the context of building mariners----
    Dr. Babin [interrupting]. Well, I understand what you are 
saying, and you are kind of dodging.
    The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy needs experienced leaders 
training our merchant mariners, not some social justice warrior 
who is laser-focused on DEI ideology, expanding abortion, or 
accusing individuals of inherent racism based purely on their 
skin color--which is illegal, by the way, since 1965.
    So, while military branches face a worsening recruiting 
crisis, our once-pristine service academies seem to be losing 
sight of their mission. And so, I would encourage you to 
consider this in your responsibilities over the Merchant Marine 
Academy.
    I find your answer insufficient, and really am concerned 
when I see a shortfall of recruitment going on, really, 
throughout the services but especially here at the Merchant 
Marine Academy. That is very concerning to me, to see someone 
in charge of what Mr. Tripolskii's position is, and saying 
things as he says. Racism. That is all I can say. I hope you 
will consider that.
    Thank you. I yield back.
    Mr. Webster of Florida. Mr. Garamendi, you are recognized 
for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Garamendi. I thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    I am hesitant to jump into the fray of the previous 
question, but I will simply say that there is ample evidence 
that there is a systemic problem existing in the maritime 
industry. It finds its way into the Merchant Mariner Academy. 
There are numerous reports of sexual assault, misogyny, and 
other activities going on not only at this academy but all of 
our academies, and it has to be dealt with.
    Admiral Phillips, I know you are aggressively doing that, 
and I encourage you to continue to go at it. Whatever the root 
cause might be, it has to be dealt with.
    Admiral Phillips. Yes, sir.
    Mr. Garamendi. Now, I won't comment on yesterday's court 
decision in New York with regard to a similar issue, but I will 
say that this must be dealt with.
    Admiral Phillips, Admiral Thomas, I encourage you to do 
everything in your power to deal with these problems.
    Generally--not generally--specifically, more than 50 
percent of the American population is female. If we are going 
to recruit and fill the ranks, we are going to have to reach 
out to the women, young and not so young. And if this problem 
is not dealt with, we will not be able to successfully recruit 
50 percent of the American population.
    Whatever the root cause might be, it has to be dealt with.
    Now, let me go to another matter here. In the years I have 
been on this subcommittee, including the years that I was not 
on it, with regard to the merchant mariner system and the 
merchant marine, I keep hearing it is all about cargo. If you 
don't have the cargo, you don't have the ships, and you don't 
have the personnel for the ships.
    In 2012, in its lack of wisdom, the Congress reduced the 
compelled cargo from 75 percent to 50. As long as that remains 
in effect, we will not have the opportunity for cargo for 
American ships.
    And I draw this to the attention of this committee that has 
this specific opportunity and responsibility to address this 
issue. Unfortunately, there are other committees involved.
    But, beyond that, I want to address the issue of the 
availability or the nonavailability of American ships. Right 
now, the responsibility to determine the availability or 
nonavailability is basically to the American Government entity 
that is doing the shipments--for example, the military. The 
military can, on its own, decide that there is not an available 
ship. Similarly, USDA and USAID.
    So, my question to you, Admiral Phillips, is: Why don't you 
take the responsibility, and why doesn't this committee 
straighten this out so that there is one Federal agency that is 
specifically responsible for this area that can make the 
determination of the availability?
    Admiral Phillips, I would appreciate your comment on this.
    Admiral Phillips. So, Congressman Garamendi, sir, thank you 
very much for your comments all the way around. We appreciate 
them. We understand them.
    From the context of cargo preference, we certainly 
understand the challenges that the agencies find in confirming 
whether or not there are ships available.
    Of course, Department of Defense is in one circumstance. 
They have a 100-percent requirement. The others have a 50-
percent requirement.
    However, I would defer to Congress from the context of how 
such determinations----
    Mr. Garamendi [interrupting]. Well, let me just----
    Admiral Phillips [continuing]. Should be made and who 
should make them.
    Mr. Garamendi. Excuse my jumping in, but if you had the 
responsibility, could you effectively make the decision about 
the availability of American ships?
    Admiral Phillips. Sir, thank you again for that question.
    Of course, we work today to be a part of that process, and 
so, we do have an understanding of it. And we work within the 
authorities that we have, which do involve others in making 
that decision. We are certainly familiar with the process.
    Mr. Garamendi. Shall I take that as a ``yes''?
    Admiral Phillips. Again, sir, we defer to Congress on how 
they would like this to be run. Thank you.
    Mr. Garamendi. Thank you.
    I yield back.
    Mr. Webster of Florida. OK.
    Mr. Bean, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Bean of Florida. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
    And good morning, T&I subcommittee. It is good to see you 
here.
    I got the privilege of visiting Coast Guard Mayport and 
spent the morning there and have fully recognized the mission 
of the Coast Guard, and it was very eye-opening. And I just 
appreciate everybody, the hospitality that they showed.
    If you are in the audience and you are in the Coast Guard, 
you are planning to be in the Coast Guard, or have served in 
the Coast Guard, will you stand and let us recognize you? There 
are a whole lot of Coasties here.
    Go ahead, stand up.
    Very good. Thank you very much.
    [Applause.]
    Mr. Bean of Florida. I will be so--I am going to make a 
bold statement. And you would think this isn't going to be a 
big deal, but it is. Something that I believe both sides agree 
on--how about that?--both sides agree that we want a very 
strong Coast Guard. A strong Coast Guard is a strong America.
    So, I think we are on board that we want to make sure that 
we hit our goals and hit the retention mission of keeping 
qualified people who have already trained, and we have already 
invested in them, the skills and leadership, to make sure that 
our Coast Guard is strong.
    Which leads into my question, which is: How many folks did 
we kick out because they refused the mRNA shot?
    Admiral Thomas. Well, Congressman, first of all, thanks for 
visiting our team there in Jacksonville. As a former sector 
Jacksonville commander, I know that area well, and our folks 
really love to live and serve there, so, thanks for that.
    With regard to separations due to failure to get a COVID 
vaccine, we separated a total of 247 individuals. Since the 
mandate has been lifted by Congress, we have been in touch with 
every single one of them and offered them a pathway back to the 
Service. About 148 have indicated they want to come back.
    And in addition to that, we are reaching out to every 
person who left the Service over the last 2 years, even if it 
was voluntary, because it may have been related to COVID, and 
we are offering them a pathway back.
    Unlike the other services, everyone who left the Coast 
Guard left with an honorable discharge and with a reenlistment 
code that allows them to come back. So, I appreciate the 
question, and we are really actively--we have stood up a 
special team called the Return to Service Team that is just 
focused on this.
    Mr. Bean of Florida. Is it all about money? Is money the 
name of the game?
    Admiral Thomas. I am not sure what you mean by that.
    Mr. Bean of Florida. How big a part is money a part of 
coming back? Was that part of coming back? What did you offer 
them to come back? Or tell us about----
    Admiral Thomas [interrupting]. We offered them to come 
back, just like anyone who had served before and indicates they 
want to come back to the Service. There are no money issues 
involved.
    Mr. Bean of Florida. Got you. And it was like they never 
left, or that is what the invite was, come on back, and we will 
put you back where you were?
    Admiral Thomas. Absolutely. And back on advancement lists, 
promotion lists. Can't guarantee them the same assignment, but 
we are bringing them back at the same rank and rate.
    Mr. Bean of Florida. Very good. No, thank you. And those 
numbers are a lot better than some of the other branches.
    I also serve on--I think there is a handful of us who serve 
on the Committee on Education and the Workforce. I chair the 
subcommittee on K-12. We are kind of reexamining what the 
future of K-12 should look like.
    We realize now that two-thirds of our students are not 
going to go to college. One-third are. But the two-thirds, we 
are really focusing on getting everybody to college when in 
reality, that is not realistic.
    We want to make sure that they have other options including 
vocational programs or access to vocational schools. What do we 
need to do--and this is a toss-up for anybody--what should we 
do to make sure that high school students, or even into middle 
school, to have a career track to go to the military, and, 
specifically, the Coast Guard? Is there anybody who has a 
thought on what that would look like?
    Admiral Thomas. We certainly are very active reaching out 
to high schools and also to trade schools. So, we have begun to 
bring people into our Service who have skills in what we call 
lateral entry.
    So, we may have gone to a culinary school, and we found 
someone who knows how to cook. We can bring them into our 
Service as a second-class petty officer, teach them what they 
need to know about Coast Guard paperwork and Coast Guard 
history and leadership, but we are bringing them in that way, 
so they don't necessarily have to start at the bottom and work 
their way up.
    Mr. Bean of Florida. So, we are already reaching out to 
high schools, that is part of the recruitment process?
    Admiral Thomas. Absolutely.
    Mr. Bean of Florida. Very good.
    So, with our last just few seconds, I am going to give the 
Rear Admiral one more chance of a yes or no, we only have time 
for a yes or no question. Do you want another bite of the 
apple, just a yes or no, do you want to repudiate the racist 
comments of the guy that you hired, yes or no?
    Admiral Phillips. Sir, as I have stated before, we are 
focused on the future----
    Mr. Bean of Florida [interrupting]. Oh, my time is expired. 
I am so sorry. I yield back.
    Mr. Webster of Florida. Mr. Ezell, you are recognized for 5 
minutes.
    Mr. Ezell. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    This committee continues to hear from the maritime industry 
about the significant shortages of U.S. mariners. This deeply 
concerns me, especially as China continues to expand its 
shipbuilding capabilities.
    To strengthen our national security and meet the needs of 
our Nation's economy, we must continue to promote and improve 
programs that support recruiting and training of mariners.
    Admiral Phillips, we know that increasing the number of 
individuals with merchant mariner credentials will support the 
industry and ultimately sealift operations. As you also know, 
many jobs in the shipbuilding industry do not require these 
credentials, and, instead, require trade qualifications such as 
welders and electricians.
    While we are well aware of the shortage of credentialed 
mariners, can you talk about some of the other sectors that 
lack qualified workers to carry out the job?
    Admiral Phillips. So, Congressman, sir, thank you for that 
question. Of course our focus at the maritime industry is on 
mariners who will sail, and to that end, on providing 
opportunities and to expand capacity there in particular.
    As you point out, and as several Members have pointed out, 
there are opportunities here for young people to join the 
maritime industry, to come in as unlicensed mariners and work 
their way up. And this provides them good-paying jobs that can 
serve them for the rest of their lives.
    From the context of working with other industries that 
support the maritime industry, particularly in ports and that 
kind of sector, we do oversee the Port Infrastructure 
Development Program, which, as you are aware, provides 
opportunities to strengthen capacity for ports and, in that 
context, provides jobs to many of the skill sets that you talk 
about, to support that work, to improve capacity across our 
ports and waterways.
    Mr. Ezell. Ms. MacLeod, could you comment on that as well?
    Ms. MacLeod. Our work to date has focused on the 
credentialing process itself that we have underway, and as was 
noted earlier, this is a paper process. We have seen issues 
with the actual printers themselves that have caused some 
delays.
    So, we do have a study underway looking at the process 
itself, the processing times, what those actually are. There 
can be a difference between the mariner experience and what are 
the official times for processing, as well as the performance 
of the processing itself. So, again, we have a study underway, 
and I expect that we will be sharing the results of that study 
later this summer.
    Mr. Ezell. Thank you.
    Admiral Phillips, what do you recommend that Congress 
should implement to boost employment?
    Admiral Phillips. Well, thank you for that question, sir. I 
think any opportunity to expand our capacity across the 
maritime industry, of course more broadly, but also to expand 
our capacity at shipyards and at ports is a way to drive a 
need, which will then drive capacity to bring more people into 
the industry.
    I should add that our Small Shipyard Grant Program also can 
provide funds for small shipyards to do apprenticeship 
training, and that is yet another way to bring in young people 
into the shipyard or ship repair industry and give them 
opportunities.
    And I would also add that the Small Shipyard Grant Program 
is vastly oversubscribed. It is a $20-million-a-year program, 
and we typically get about $80 million or so in applications 
for grants for that program alone. So, there are certainly 
opportunities there to improve capacity.
    Mr. Ezell. Admiral Thomas, could you add anything to that?
    Admiral Thomas. Well, certainly--I mean, you asked the 
question about where else are we seeing critical skill 
shortages, and certainly in shipyards as we are building our 
new cutters, labor is a challenge, and it is one of the reasons 
why shipbuilding projects run behind schedule and over budget.
    So, we are focused on helping to build the military 
industrial base. That is a challenge for our Nation, and we 
need to all stay focused on it.
    Mr. Ezell. Thank you.
    Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
    Mr. Webster of Florida. Ms. Scholten, you are recognized 
for 5 minutes.
    Ms. Scholten. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I appreciate all of 
our witnesses being here today. Hillary Scholten from 
Michigan's Third Congressional District, beautiful Coast Guard 
installation in Grand Haven and Muskegon.
    I really appreciate you taking the time to talk about these 
critical recruitment and retention issues, which is truly a 
national security issue. Currently, the Coast Guard is 
operating with nearly 5,000 fewer guardsmen and guardswomen 
than they need and has consistently failed to meet recruiting 
goals. This is a serious problem.
    We know that the Coast Guard is critical to a number of key 
security priorities, including drug interdiction, maritime law 
enforcement, antiterrorism responses, and icebreaking. We need 
to adopt some serious solutions.
    Two concerns that have come up in my conversations with my 
local Coast Guard station in Grand Haven is pay stability and 
housing.
    Vice Admiral Thomas, two-thirds of military members report 
that security and stability of the job had a great influence on 
their decision to join the military, and 31 percent report that 
military pay had a great or very great influence on their 
decision to join the military.
    During the 2019 Government shutdown, Coast Guard men and 
women endured a 35-day lapse in pay, because, as you are aware, 
they do not receive pay as other branches of the military do in 
the event of a Government shutdown.
    My first question for you is, if hypothetically, we were to 
experience another Government shutdown--I don't know why anyone 
would think we would be flirting with that idea right now--do 
you think our Coast Guard men and women, particularly some of 
the youngest recruits, are in a position to float that lapse in 
pay with their savings, pay for their own childcare, or is 
there a risk that they might seek alternative employment where 
they would have stable pay?
    Admiral Thomas. Well, first of all, thanks for the 
question, and I have been to Grand Haven twice in the last 
month recently.
    Ms. Scholten. Wonderful.
    Admiral Thomas. So, our Coasties up there love the place, 
and obviously Grand Haven loves our Coast Guard, so, we 
appreciate that.
    Ms. Scholten. We do.
    Admiral Thomas. Yes. I was a operational commander when we 
had that pay lapse, and it absolutely impacted our readiness. 
When you are about to get onto a helicopter to go put your life 
at risk, and you are wondering: Is my family all right? Or if 
you are at sea for an extended period of time, and you know 
that your family is at home without pay, those are hard things 
to deal with.
    So, absolutely, pay stability is one of the reasons why the 
members join the military, and when we can't provide that, I 
think we break faith with our workforce.
    Ms. Scholten. I couldn't agree more. Recently with 
Representative Gonzalez-Colon we introduced the Pay Our Coast 
Guard Parity Act, which would ensure that our Coast Guard men 
and women get paid in the event of a Government shutdown. It is 
so critical that we pass this piece of legislation to ensure 
that we are able to meet our retention and recruitment goals.
    What influence, if any, do you think that awareness of this 
lack of ability to pay is factoring in? And if not, and we are 
surprising individuals walking into this, do you think there is 
more that we should be doing to let them know, if my colleagues 
are not willing to take this bill up and to pass it into law?
    Admiral Thomas. Well, first, we thank you both for your 
support of that bill and for our Coast Guard members. I should 
mention, I mean, this is a total workforce issue, because our 
civilian employees are critical to our operations as well, and 
in the case of a lapse of appropriations, we often have to send 
them home.
    I cannot quantify the impact of the potential pay lapse on 
our ability to recruit and retain folks, but certainly knowing 
that that is off the table is a great message to send.
    Ms. Scholten. OK. Great. So, do you think it is fair to say 
that, yes, we should be paying our Coast Guard men and women in 
the event of a Government shutdown?
    Admiral Thomas. Well, as I said, we cannot afford to break 
faith with our workforce, and that certainly is one way to do 
that.
    Ms. Scholten. Yes. As we experience increased cuts, we are 
seeing a 22-percent cut for Federal Government funding with 
these, in the lapse of appropriations, and it is just critical 
that we are continuing to pay these Coast Guard men and women.
    In the remaining time, if you have any comments on ensuring 
safe and stable and affordable housing for our Coast Guard men 
and women, we know that is another critical issue.
    Admiral Thomas. It is. And as I said, we are different than 
the other services because most of our force is on the economy, 
not in Government housing. So, we really need to look at how 
BAH rates are set, and we need to look at how we can make them 
more adaptable quickly to market conditions.
    Ms. Scholten. Thank you.
    I am over time, so, I yield back.
    Mr. Webster of Florida. Thank you very much. Mr. Mast, you 
are recognized.
    Mr. Mast. Thank you, Chairman. Semper paratus, Admiral.
    Admiral Thomas. Right back at you, Congressman.
    Mr. Mast. Very good. Hey, when I first walked in, you were 
finishing up a statement, saying ``following the other 
services.'' So, I am going to get into transgender policy and 
ask you very specifically, at the direction of the Department 
of Homeland Security, or at the direction of the Department of 
Defense, is the Coast Guard in any way following the direction 
of other services, or one of our service Secretaries, to do 
things other services have done, allegedly, support recruitment 
and retention by planning drag queen story hours on airbases as 
a ``following the other services,'' hiring influencers that are 
drag queens or transgender to specifically boost or have a 
program to specifically recruit transgender individuals? Does 
that exist in the Coast Guard?
    Admiral Thomas. Not to my knowledge, Congressman. We follow 
the other services with regard to our policies around 
transgender members. I am not aware of any specific recruiting 
efforts that are targeting that community.
    Mr. Mast. Thank you. I couldn't find any, so, I wanted to 
ask you outright if such a thing existed.
    Going specifically to the policies, I am reading a number 
of different policies dated different times over the years by 
the Coast Guard. Is it still the policy of the United States 
Coast Guard that individuals with a history of gender dysphoria 
will be permitted to join the military if they are only stable 
for 18 consecutive months in their biological sex prior to 
accession as certified by a licensed medical professional? Is 
that still the policy of the United States Coast Guard?
    Admiral Thomas. I am going to have to take that for the 
record to make sure that 18 months is exactly the number, but 
generally, we do have a policy that allows stable members with 
gender dysphoria diagnosis to enter our Service, consistent 
with the other services.
    Mr. Mast. Acknowledging that you don't know the exact month 
number, I know reading numerous documents it was hard for me to 
find as well whether it was 36 or 18 or if there had been a 
change. So, conceding that there is confusion about the exact 
date, why does it exist that individuals have to be stabilized 
in their biological sex before allowing to access into the 
Coast Guard?
    Admiral Thomas. Well, I think what all the services are 
doing is, just like any other medical condition, we want to 
make sure that we know what we are getting and that we have 
somebody who is stable, and, therefore, they will be able to 
serve, similar to many others with many other medical 
conditions.
    Mr. Mast. Can you describe the medical condition?
    Admiral Thomas. Excuse me?
    Mr. Mast. Describe to me this medical condition.
    Admiral Thomas. Any other medical condition or----
    Mr. Mast [interrupting]. This condition, gender dysphoria, 
individuals that need to be stabilized in their biological sex 
for 18 months or something close to that, in order to receive 
accession into the Coast Guard, other policies, and that have 
not transitioned to their preferred gender, and a licensed 
medical provider has determined that gender transition is not 
required to protect their, quote/unquote, ``health,'' and 
willing and able to adhere to all standards associated with 
their biological sex, other things listed out there. Can you 
just help me understand what is the medical condition of gender 
dysphoria?
    Admiral Thomas. Sir, Congressman, I am not a medical 
professional. I can certainly provide or offer a brief with our 
chief medical officer, and she could probably do a much better 
job than I in answering that question.
    Mr. Mast. But I am going to say this, based upon the Coast 
Guard's guidance--and I agree with it--it does appear that they 
acknowledge that there are medical conditions associated with 
individuals identifying outside of their biological sex.
    And I think that is a very real issue, and I think it is 
absolutely affecting retention in all of our branches of the 
military. I think for the branches that are specifically 
looking to recruit individuals that are transgender, they are 
losing more than they are recruiting, and I don't think it is a 
focus to make the fighting force that much better.
    But I want to move to one other quick Coast Guard document 
here. Coast Guard human resources document. It is the last 
question on this, and I will submit it for the record in case 
you want to see it. But here is the question. This is from a 
Coast Guard document. This isn't my question.
    Isn't focusing on diversity issues creating reverse 
discrimination and separating us further rather than uniting 
us? This is a United States Coast Guard human resources 
document, and I will just say this. The answer was an absolute 
nonanswer. So, it asks, Admiral, could you answer that question 
from a Coast Guard document: Isn't focusing on diversity issues 
creating reverse discrimination and separating us rather than 
unifying us?
    Admiral Thomas. I'm happy to answer that question. I don't 
know the context of that paper. What I can tell you as a 
military leader of 38 years----
    Mr. Mast [interrupting]. I will submit it for the record, 
so you----
    [The information follows:]

                                 
   U.S. Coast Guard Updated Commandant Instruction on Leadership and 
Diversity Councils, COMDTINST 5350.9A, Flag Voice #545, April 22, 2021, 
             Submitted for the Record by Hon. Brian J. Mast

[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

                            FLAG VOICE #545
   U.S. Coast Guard Instruction on Leadership and Diversity Councils
                             22 April 2021
    I am pleased to announce the release of the updated Commandant 
Instruction on Leadership and Diversity Councils, COMDTINST 5350.9A. 
This updated Instruction reestablishes the Leadership, Excellence and 
Diversity (LEAD) Council to become a conduit for diversity issues and 
concerns from the field directly to the Commandant and renames it as 
the Inclusive Leadership Excellence and Diversity (ILEAD) Council to 
highlight the Coast Guard's focus on inclusion as a leadership concept.
    Deputy Commandant and Area co-chairs will manage the ILEAD Council 
and this role will alternate between DCO and PACAREA, and DCMS and 
LANTAREA every two years. This change empowers the ILEAD Council to 
drive solutions and organizational change more directly to operational 
and support commanders.
    The ILEAD Council will engage the Leadership and Diversity Advisory 
Council (LDAC) network to develop and prioritize recommendations, as 
well as to share best practices, lessons learned, senior leadership 
direction and feedback. Additionally, the ILEAD Council will assess 
operational risks to leadership, diversity and inclusion (D&I); 
identify instances where policies and practices work counter to D&I 
goals; and provide command climate improvement and leadership 
development recommendations to the Commandant semi-annually.
    The updated instruction provides commands with guidance on the 
appropriate designation of command LDAC Chair, Vice Chair and Secretary 
positions via administrative remarks to ensure reflection in an 
individual's official record.
    COMDTINST 5350.9A will be posted on the Resources tab of CG Portal. 
Please encourage your personnel, especially subordinate commands and 
LDACs, to read through the instruction for updated guidance. Talking 
points and FAQ's are attached to this Flag Voice.
    Any questions should be directed to the Office of Diversity and 
Inclusion at [email protected].
                                           Joanna M. Nunan,
      Rear Admiral, USCG, Assistant Commandant for Human Resources.

                                                         Attachment
           U.S. COAST GUARD ILEAD COUNCIL POLICY ANNOUNCEMENT
Background
    The Office of Diversity and Inclusion continues to implement the 
Coast Guard Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan (DIAP). These materials 
will help Coast Guard leaders inform employees of recent programmatic 
enhancements to the LEAD Council.
    This information should be shared during an all hands or other 
applicable command gathering.
Changes to the former LEAD Council include:
      Reestablishing and renaming the Coast Guard's Leadership, 
Excellence and Diversity (LEAD) Council to the Inclusive Leadership, 
Excellence and Diversity (ILEAD) Council.
      Clarifying and describing an enhanced network of 
Leadership and Diversity Advisory Councils (LDACS) to support and 
extend the work of the ILEAD throughout the Service.
      Demonstrating the Coast Guard's ongoing commitment and 
implementation of critical DIAP initiatives, including improving 
processes, structure, and resources accessibility.
Overarching Communication Themes
      Renaming and reestablishing the ILEAD Council 
demonstrates systematic improvements, continued commitment, and success 
in implementing the DIAP.
      Clarifying the roles of the ILEAD Council and LDAC 
improves awareness and access, allowing total force participation in 
inclusive leadership practices and D&I.
      Changes initiated to engage field personal in leadership 
and D&I more directly.
Additional Commander Resources:
    Given the current climate of incidents with the Asian American 
Pacific Islander, Black/African American, and LGBTQIA+ communities, 
managers/unit leaders can access the following diversity and inclusion 
resources to facilitate workplace discussions:
      Leadership Guide for the D&I Action Plan Rollout includes 
Techniques for Leaders to Engage in D&I Conversations.
      D&I Command Resources contains several D&I command best 
practices as resources for leaders.
                ILEAD Policy Leadership Talking Points:
      During the recent State of the Coast Guard briefing, the 
Commandant outlined several initiatives to ensure that the Coast Guard 
remains a service of choice, retaining a ready, diverse and highly 
skilled workforce.
      These new programs will ensure that we have a Mission 
Ready Total Workforce, where all of our employees have the opportunity 
to achieve their full potential while contributing to the Coast Guard 
mission.
      The Coast Guard's ability to respond to emerging threats 
in a fast-paced, ever-changing world requires that we engage and 
maximize our workforce's full potential.
      In the coming weeks, we are launching a mentoring program 
and new D&I training programs that will directly improve professional 
development opportunities and working environments throughout our 
Service.
      We are equipping our leaders with new resources and tools 
to improve our working culture and environment, including focusing 
specifically on creating a more inclusive and diverse workplace.
      Inclusion is paramount to improving productivity, 
performance, innovation, job satisfaction and achieving mission 
excellence.
      Inclusivity ensures mission success, representation and 
engagement of diverse talent, strengthens leadership accountability. 
Diversity and inclusion embody the Coast Guard Core Values of honor, 
respect and devotion to duty.
      This week, the Commandant issued new guidance that 
impacts the ILEAD Council and LDACs.
      The ILEAD Council provides a forum for identifying and 
sharing challenges, solutions, programs, and practices that effectively 
enhance diversity and inclusion throughout our workplace culture.
      Program enhancements include:
      +  Renaming the LEAD Council to the ILEAD Council to recognize 
the importance of inclusion as a leadership concept.
      +  Establishing field unit co-chairs for the ILEAD Council, which 
will alternate between DCO and PAC, and DCMS and LANT.
      +  Establishing new ILEAD Council responsibilities to more fully 
incorporate engagement and communications with field LDACs. ILEAD 
Council responsibilities include assessing operational risks to 
leadership, diversity and inclusion and identifying instances where 
policies and practices work counter to D&I goals.
      +  Briefing the Commandant at least twice annually to present 
recommendations specific to policy and process that work counter to 
leadership, diversity and inclusion objectives.
      +  Requiring DCMS, DCO, LANTAREA, PACAREA, District Commanders, 
and Commanding Officers with 50 or more personnel to establish a unit 
Leadership and Diversity Advisory Council (LDAC). Additionally, 
Commands must document the Chair, Vice-Chair and Secretary of each LDAC 
via Administrative Remarks.
      These changes allow us to drive solutions and 
organizational change at the unit level and throughout our total force.
      Every Coast Guard employee is represented by an LDAC and 
has the opportunity to communicate to senior leadership through the 
LDAC network to the Coast Guard's ILEAD Council. Everyone is encouraged 
to attend and participate in LDAC meetings.
      Mention Unit LDAC Contact or have them stand up in the 
all hands event.
      I rely on the LDAC to advise me on our organizational 
culture. These programs will only work if we all engage, communicate 
and participate. It's our LDAC--we make the process meaningful. So, 
once again, I encourage you to participate and seek out opportunities 
to work with the LDAC and ILEAD Council.
      The LDACs is an additional tool we can all deploy, along 
with our Affinity Groups, mentoring programs, and professional 
development opportunities to ensure we all embody the Coast Guard Core 
Values as we serve our Nation.
                       Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What kinds of problems, issues, or concerns does the ILEAD Council 
address?
A: The Coast Guard's ILEAD Council assesses the command climate and 
leadership development of the total workforce and provides 
recommendations to the Commandant.

Q: How can I get in contact with the ILEAD Council?
A: Your unit LDAC provides you a direct link to the ILEAD Council. 
Additionally, the ILEAD Council portal page and website are being 
updated and will be available for future communications.

Q: How does the ILEAD Council work with the Leadership and Diversity 
Advisory Councils (LDACs)?
A: The ILEAD Council and LDAC network spans from headquarters to the 
unit level, empowering members to:
      Take an active role in promoting inclusion and diversity 
within the Coast Guard.
      Suggest best practices or issues to address that impact 
organizational climate.
      Engage with their local community to establish 
relationships and model leadership.
      Specifically, LDACs provide direct feedback to the ILEAD 
Council on D&I and leadership challenges that are being encountered at 
the unit level.

Q: How are the members of the ILEAD Council and LDAC selected?
A: The LDACs are made up of unit volunteers. Anyone is able and welcome 
to join their unit's LDAC.
The ILEAD Council membership is set forth in COMDTINST 5350.9A and each 
representative is selected by their respective organizations.

Q: Why is the Coast Guard focusing on diversity and inclusion? How does 
this directly impact our operational mission?
A: To remain the world's best Coast Guard, we must be seen as an 
employer of choice. Talent management is one of the greatest challenges 
and opportunities facing our Service. Within two tours, supervisors at 
all levels of the organization--including the next Commandant--will 
face a vastly different social landscape to build our future force. The 
Coast Guard needs the best people our Nation has to offer to defend our 
freedoms, ensure prosperity, and save those in peril. Our complex 
operating environment makes it critical that we harness the full power 
of the background, experience, and thought of every member of our 
workforce. Diverse teams demonstrate higher levels of innovation and 
creativity--precisely the attributes our Service needs to address a 
future of increasingly sophisticated and complex operations.

Q: Where can I get additional information on diversity and inclusion 
programs and resources?
A: For additional information about D&I Programs please access the CG-
127 Portal site at: CG-127-Home (uscg.mil) or the CG-127 website at: 
Office of Diversity and Inclusion (CG-12B), U.S. Coast Guard (uscg.mil)

Q: How are Coast Guard Affinity Groups a part of the ILEAD or LDAC 
Councils?
A: The ILEAD Council is an internal organization, comprised of field 
representatives, that reports directly to the Commandant on diversity 
initiatives and concerns. Their work is informed by our unit level 
LDACs which are local diversity support for commanding officers. 
Affinity Groups are external organizations that partner with the Coast 
Guard to achieve organizational leadership, diversity and mentorship 
goals. Affinity Groups, the ILEAD and LDACs work together to support 
both local and Coast Guard wide diversity initiatives and dialogues.

Q: What is the definition of inclusion?
A: A dynamic state of operating in which diversity is leveraged to 
create a fair, healthy, and high-performing organization or community. 
An inclusive environment ensures equitable access to resources and 
opportunities for all. It also enables individuals and groups to feel 
safe, respected, engaged, motivated, and valued for who they are and 
for their contributions toward organizational goals.

Q: Isn't focusing on diversity issues creating reverse discrimination 
and separating us rather than unifying us?
A: The Coast Guard's Diversity and Inclusion Program is founded on 
creating an organization for everyone serving in the Coast Guard and 
draw top talent across the spectrum of American society to rise to the 
challenges of today and tomorrow. We do this by fostering 
intersectionality and looking holistically at our current and potential 
active duty, reserve, civilian and auxiliary members and not just a 
single dimension. Our goal is to ensure all of our members have a voice 
and a home with the Coast Guard.

Q: Do the ILEAD Council and LDAC address concerns of Coast Guard 
civilian and auxiliary members?
A: Yes, the Coast Guard's ILEAD Council assesses the command climate 
and leadership development of the total workforce.
    Admiral Thomas [continuing]. In a Service that relies on 
small teams at the tactical edge to get the mission done, there 
is no question diverse teams are more effective, and every 
single member needs to feel included or else they will not be 
as effective as they need to be. So, I do not agree that 
focusing on diversity causes reverse discrimination.
    Mr. Mast. I would recommend you take a look at this 
document, and you all look to update it because, like I said, 
very much a nonanswer. I don't have time to go into it, but 
very much a nonanswer given to a very important question. Thank 
you.
    Mr. Garamendi. That was a very direct answer. He answered 
your question.
    Mr. Mast. That they update it on here. It is a very 
nonanswer, a very----
    Mr. Garamendi [interrupting]. But the Admiral----
    Mr. Mast. Let's pause one second. I haven't yielded you any 
time. But as I said, a very nonanswer on the document, the 
document here, which I will submit for the record, 
Representative Garamendi. Did you want to read it? I don't 
think you have read it yet.
    Mr. Garamendi. Pass it down.
    Mr. Mast. I will pass it on down. There you go. You can 
read the nonanswer for yourself.
    Ms. Scholten. I will take a look as well.
    Mr. Webster of Florida. Representative Gonzalez-Colon, you 
are recognized for 5 minutes.
    Mrs. Gonzalez-Colon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you 
to the witnesses for coming today.
    Dr. Asch, I will have some questions for you.
    The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, ASVAB, is 
being used by every service, including the Coast Guard, to 
assess an individual's developed abilities and determine 
appropriate occupational matches in the military for enlisted 
personnel.
    For such a vital component of the selection and recruiting 
process, for me, it is surprising that that hasn't undergone 
comprehensive evaluation since the 1990s. We are talking about 
30 years having the same ASVAB.
    What recommendations do you have for updating the ASVAB, 
and how will this help with increasing accession into the 
Service?
    Ms. Asch. Thank you for that question. So, as you 
indicated, the AFQT, which is four of the--the ASVAB is, like, 
13 tests. The AFQT is the part that is used to judge quality of 
recruits. The ASVAB scores are used for occupations, so, just 
to make the distinction.
    So, the AFQT score reflects their standing relative to the 
national population. It is based currently norm that that 
relative population is based on a survey from 1997, and so, it 
is quite old. We don't know how test scores for the target 
population has changed. What we do know is for schoolchildren, 
fourth and eighth graders from----
    Mrs. Gonzalez-Colon [interrupting]. Do you recommend having 
any updating of that?
    Ms. Asch. Yes. So, we----
    Mrs. Gonzalez-Colon [interrupting]. OK. That was the 
question.
    Ms. Asch. I apologize. So, yes, I am sorry. So, yes, it 
should be updated. We don't know what updating will do because 
we don't know what has happened to test scores, but based on a 
younger population, we know test scores have declined.
    And so, what that will mean, if it has declined relative to 
1997, young people would have higher scores--like right now, 
they look like they have low scores, but all young people have 
low scores. If we re-norm, we would have more people who could 
qualify.
    Mrs. Gonzalez-Colon. Thank you, Doctor. There are also 
waiver policies creating a perception that we are lowering our 
standards and ultimately creating a substandard military force.
    For instance, recently there has been a rise in waivers 
granted for marijuana use, misdemeanors, and certain medical 
conditions such as anxiety disorders and depression across the 
services due to its increased prevalence among today's youth.
    Based on your research, what impact do such waivers have on 
military performance and readiness?
    Ms. Asch. OK. So, we did an extensive analysis for the Army 
on waivers. Army, over the period we studied--about 15 percent 
were getting waivers--what we found was that waivered recruits 
were not uniformly risky across all the performance, that 
dimensions we looked at.
    Among the ones where they did have issues, it was related 
to what the waiver was. So, if it was a waiver for drugs, if 
they separated, it was likely because of drugs.
    That said, what we also found was that it was possible to 
offset some of those performance risks by changing the 
characteristics. So, for example, if an individual had a higher 
likelihood of separating because of their waiver, bring in a 
kid who was a high school diploma graduate or older, these are 
people who tend to have a lower probability of leaving, could 
offset it. Bottom line is----
    Mrs. Gonzalez-Colon [interrupting]. Doctor, what is the 
impact? What is the impact of those waivers in the performance?
    Ms. Asch. So, the impact of the waivers was that it was not 
necessarily negative and often positive, and that even where it 
was negative, there were ways to offset that.
    Mrs. Gonzalez-Colon. And the readiness, same thing?
    Ms. Asch. Yes, these were readiness, to the extent we can 
measure readiness.
    Mrs. Gonzalez-Colon. There is a whole list of articles 
attempting to explain the reduction in recruiting numbers in 
recent years experienced by all branches of the military. Young 
Americans born between 1997 and 2012, also known as Generation 
Z, for many reasons, known and unknown, are simply not 
interested in serving in our military.
    Can you expound on Generation Z culture and disclose a few 
of the main factors contributing to this generation's 
apprehension with joining the Service, and where best do you 
recommend the Coast Guard target its resources to attract these 
young men and women to our organization?
    Ms. Asch. So, my testimony was about the second question, 
so, let me speak to the first. The evidence on whether Gen Z is 
fundamentally different than previous ones is still unclear in 
the academic literature. So, let me just start with that.
    The point being that even other generations faced with a 
tight economy, we are seeing might be having the same attitude. 
So, it is not clear it is specific to this generation, part 1.
    Part 2 is that when we look at why people don't join, the 
kind of things they say in surveys, has to do with the risk, 
such as women often mention sexual assault, other kinds: PTSD, 
the military lifestyle interfering with their plans, and, yes, 
just disliking the military life, but also the economy, having 
good external opportunities.
    Mrs. Gonzalez-Colon. Thank you.
    Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
    Mr. Webster of Florida. Mr. Van Drew, you are recognized 
for 5 minutes.
    Dr. Van Drew. Thank you, Chairman, and welcome, everybody. 
It is always good to see the Coast Guard. Wonderful evening the 
other evening at the gala in Cape May.
    It is good to see you again, Admiral.
    Beside me in this crowded room, but we are going to do it 
somehow, is a photo of a 240-foot-long cargo vessel. It 
collided with an offshore wind structure in Europe's North Sea. 
The ship's hull was shredded from top to bottom, and the ship 
was nearly sheered in half.
    I have spent my time on this particular committee 
highlighting the dangers of offshore wind to maritime 
navigation safety. And this is why I did so [indicating photo]. 
This is just one example.
    Administrator Phillips, you once described safety as your, 
quote, ``North Star.'' Do you believe that a vessel colliding 
with an offshore wind structure is safe?
    Admiral Phillips. I do not believe that, sir.
    Dr. Van Drew. OK. Thank you. It is unbelievable that this 
administration is forcing these projects through, despite what 
many believe are the dangers, and in fact, interestingly enough 
today, there was a Fairleigh Dickinson University poll in the 
State of New Jersey that showed not just South Jersey, where 
these things are going to really affect the particular State of 
New Jersey, not just Florida, not just certain areas, but along 
the entire State, that the majority of people did not want to 
see them. It just came out today. I don't know if you saw it.
    I am concerned that we are ignoring the fundamental safety 
principles for political experience.
    Administrator Phillips, have you been a vocal advocate of 
the offshore wind industry in your official capacity as a 
Maritime Administrator?
    Admiral Phillips. Sir, thank you for that question of my 
mission, and my obligation, as the Maritime Administrator, is 
to foster, promote, and develop the maritime industry of the 
United States.
    Dr. Van Drew. OK. So, and in your mind, and I guess their 
mind, to be fair, that would be also being a vocal advocate of 
the offshore wind industry.
    Admiral Phillips. I advocate for all aspects of the 
maritime industry within this country, sir.
    Dr. Van Drew. OK. Including the wind industry no more or 
less, you would say.
    Admiral Phillips. We support the wind industry through our 
Port Infrastructure Development Program and through our title 
XI loan program, which provides loans to shipyards to build 
vessels in support of the offshore wind industry and other 
aspects of the maritime industry.
    Dr. Van Drew. So, you loan money to them so that they can 
build these vessels? Is that correct?
    Admiral Phillips. It is correct.
    Dr. Van Drew. Thank you.
    When you last appeared before this committee, I asked you 
about your work for the consulting firm Burdeshaw Associates. 
You stated that you, quote, ``did work for Burdeshaw probably 
more than a decade ago.'' Actually, in fact, you worked for 
Burdeshaw Associates a little more recently, up to 2018.
    More recently--that was more recent than you described in 
your previous testimony, but nevertheless. Burdeshaw 
Associates, your former employer, who you used to work for, was 
active in the wind energy space while you were there. Is that 
correct?
    Admiral Phillips. I am not aware of that, sir. My work with 
Burdeshaw, which actually ended in 2016 as far as any work I 
did for them, was all on the Department of Defense side.
    Dr. Van Drew. OK. Well, I thank you for that answer. We 
have information that we will get to you that states 2018, you 
were still related to them, and they were active in the wind 
energy space while you were there.
    Burdeshaw maintains staff with expertise in wind energy, as 
we all know. One of your colleagues at Burdeshaw was a Mr. 
William Fetzer, whose LinkedIn profile describes his work as 
involving, quote, ``international wind farms, wind turbine 
manufacturers, and wind service industries,'' end quote. Would 
you say that that is an accurate quote?
    It is quoted right from the information----
    Admiral Phillips [interrupting]. I do not know this 
gentleman, sir.
    Dr. Van Drew. OK. Well, we will get you a lot of 
information, which is hard because you were all working 
together. But in any event, I guess things can happen.
    Burdeshaw Associates also has a client named Apex Clean 
Energy. Apex is based in Virginia and operates in both onshore 
and offshore wind development. In 2018 after leaving Burdeshaw, 
you began working as a special assistant to Governor Northam of 
the State of Virginia. Is that correct, ma'am?
    Admiral Phillips. I did work for Governor Northam starting 
in 2018, yes, sir.
    Dr. Van Drew. OK. Thank you.
    In October 2019, Governor Northam and Apex Clean Energy 
announced the power purchasing agreement for Virginia's first 
onshore wind farm. Is that correct, ma'am?
    Admiral Phillips. I don't know, sir. I have no knowledge of 
that activity.
    Dr. Van Drew. OK. In 2021, Governor Northam announced a 
major deal with a manufacturer named Siemens to construct an 
offshore wind manufacturing facility. It turns out that Siemens 
is also a client of Burdeshaw Associates, your former employer.
    Incidentally, Siemens is also the company who manufactured 
a turbine that resulted in the devastating collision that you 
now see in this picture.
    Administrator Phillips, the past decade of your career is 
surrounded by businesses and individuals involved in wind 
energy development in the United States of America. I 
personally believe you have used your office to promote 
offshore wind, including testifying before Congress to request 
millions--millions--of dollars in public funding that would, 
quote, ``advance offshore wind farm development.''
    [Sound of gavel.]
    Dr. Van Drew. I feel that your willingness and expertise in 
advocating for wind energy development is possibly a reason why 
this administration has selected you as Administrator. How do 
you feel about that?
    And I am done. I yield.
    Mr. Webster of Florida. OK. Well----
    Dr. Van Drew [interrupting]. Can she just finish her 
answer?
    Mr. Webster of Florida. She can in the second round.
    Dr. Van Drew. OK. Thank you.
    That is an ugly picture. You can take it down. I don't want 
them staring at that.
    Mr. Webster of Florida. Mr. Carbajal, you are recognized 
for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Carbajal. Thank you. I will try to do my best to be 
Perry Mason as well.
    Ms. MacLeod and Admiral Thomas, can you please explain 
Coast Guard retention rates for women and minorities over time, 
and what is the Coast Guard doing to ensure that its leaders 
better reflect America?
    Admiral Thomas. Congressman, happy to answer that question 
because it obviously is important to us, and our Commandant has 
made it very clear that we need to look different in the 
future. So, we are focused on developing robust candidate pools 
that represent the mix of our Nation.
    With regard to retention, particularly retention of women 
in our Service has actually--the gap between the retention of 
women and men in the Service has tightened. URMs, we recently 
did an underrepresented minority study which gave us several 
recommendations on how to improve retention.
    Some of that has to do with our military justice system, 
which we have adjusted. Some of it has to do with building 
tighter communities, particularly communities where URM seem to 
want to serve, and we are doing that as well. So, there is a 
lot of activity in that space, particularly around retaining 
women and URM.
    Mr. Carbajal. Thank you.
    Ms. MacLeod?
    Ms. MacLeod. Yes. So, we have studied female Active Duty 
personnel in the services and found that female servicemembers 
are 28 percent more likely to leave military service than male 
servicemembers. And some of the reasons we found are related to 
work schedules, organizational culture, family planning issues, 
sexual assault, and dependent care. So, again, that is military 
servicewide and the Coast Guard being one.
    Mr. Carbajal. Thank you.
    Admiral Thomas, a GAO report highlights 29 recommendations, 
as you mentioned, to address recruiting, of which 24 the Coast 
Guard has not taken action on. Many of these recommendations 
include suggestions to utilize metrics and benchmarks which are 
important to track progress and understand how strategies work. 
If you can't measure it, you can't evaluate it.
    Admiral Thomas, what metrics are the Coast Guard using to 
track recruitment progress, how does the Coast Guard measure 
its recruiting efforts, and what have these measurements shown?
    Admiral Thomas. Thank you for that question, Congressman. 
There is absolutely no question that our IT systems around HR, 
around our workforce, we need to invest, because the current 
systems we have are built for a workforce that is monolithic, 
and that is not where we are anymore.
    We need to have a deeper understanding of our workforce 
down to the individual level so that we can manage them and 
help them better. That absolutely includes our recruiting 
numbers as well.
    I mentioned earlier the new technology we are bringing on 
for our recruiters is called Gangway. That will allow us to 
have metrics. It will allow us to measure every step of the 
process. We will know how many people fall off at what point, 
and then we will be able to make some adjustments. Right now, 
that is very difficult for us to do. It is a valid 
recommendation from the GAO, and we are investing in order to 
get after it.
    Mr. Carbajal. And what is the timeframe for the 
implementation of that?
    Admiral Thomas. We will implement Gangway in the first week 
of June.
    Mr. Carbajal. Thank you.
    Ms. MacLeod, what sort of metrics should the Coast Guard 
utilize, and do you care to comment on the strategies Admiral 
Thomas mentioned?
    Ms. MacLeod. Yes. I think that we will be looking at the 
strategies that the admiral mentioned and comparing those 
against best practices in our work.
    But in terms of our prior recommendations, many of these 
studies that we have discussed today are fairly recent. We have 
seen some Coast Guard action on establishing some of the 
metrics as strategies and timelines going forward. We would 
like to see them move out a little quicker on those 
recommendations.
    In particular, one of our foundational recommendations in 
terms of Coast Guard workforce, is related to its assessing its 
own workforce. At the time of our report a couple of years ago, 
the Coast Guard had assessed only 6 percent of its units and 
workforce needs, and now we have seen that increase to 15 
percent, but we still think there would be some benefit to the 
Coast Guard taking a broader look across its workforce needs, 
across its units, in order to establish the workforce that it 
needs going forward.
    And we are awaiting response from the Coast Guard on how it 
is going to respond to that recommendation in terms of 
timelines when they anticipate being able to respond.
    Mr. Carbajal. Thank you very much.
    Mr. Chair, I yield back.
    Mr. Webster of Florida. OK. We will now begin our second 
round of questions, starting with myself. I recognize myself 
for 5 minutes.
    Ms. MacLeod, GAO recently released a snapshot of Active 
Duty recruitment and retention challenges in the military. 
Though the report primarily focused on the challenges faced by 
the Department of Defense, do you believe the same concerns 
identified in your study apply to the Coast Guard, and could 
you please highlight a few of the most concerning challenges 
from this report?
    Ms. MacLeod. Yes. I certainly--we haven't done this work 
specific to the Coast Guard in every case. Although some of 
these studies that are included in the snapshot do include 
Coast Guard personnel, I think Servicewide, we are seeing these 
challenges.
    One that I will point out is that only about one in four 
people, according to DoD, one in four people in the United 
States between the age of 17 and 24 are able to meet the 
recruitment requirements for military service, which include, 
for example, education and physical fitness requirements.
    Mr. Webster of Florida. Dr. Asch, there is a whole host of 
articles attempting to explain the weak recruiting numbers in 
recent years experienced by all the branches of the military, 
especially in the younger generation Americans call Gen Z.
    Can you discuss just a few of the main factors contributing 
to the generation's apprehension with serving in the military 
and give your recommendation on how the Coast Guard can focus 
resources to recruit these young men and women?
    Ms. Asch. I will follow what I said before which is, some 
of the factors that come up in surveys have to do with risk to 
physical being, and risk of death often gets mentioned, risk 
related to sexual assault and sexual harassment. People 
mentioned the problems leaving family and friends, other career 
interests, pursuing--the role of the civilian economy.
    In terms of what the Coast Guard can do, it needs, in the 
short term, to focus on increasing recruiters and advertising 
in an effective way. By that, I mean it is not just increasing 
recruiters but selecting them well, training them well, 
deploying them well, and motivating them to produce; having 
effective advertising messages.
    I also believe there is more that can be done in the waiver 
and eligibility space. I will say that while it is true that 
about one-quarter are eligible to enlist, it is also the case 
that low eligibility has been persistent for many years, and 
so, it is hard to see that as the driving force of current 
difficulties.
    Mr. Webster of Florida. Thank you very much.
    I yield back the balance of my time.
    Mr. Carbajal, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Carbajal. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
    Administrator Phillips, in recent years, the U.S. merchant 
marine has been reckoning with incidents of sexual assault and 
sexual harassment which have, no doubt, harmed recruitment.
    I am glad to see that under the direction of Congress, the 
Maritime Administration is enforcing compliance with sexual 
assault and harassment policies for cadets' senior training 
program. We have a long way to go to create a safe, supportive 
work environment. What is your plan for promoting a safe 
culture across the U.S. merchant marine?
    Admiral Phillips. Congressman, thank you for that question, 
and we certainly thank this committee for their assistance in 
supporting us as we endeavor to change the culture broadly 
across the maritime industry, and in particular, in your 
support of the EMBARC program and what it is doing to ensure 
the safety of our cadets at sea, and by ensuring our safety of 
cadets at sea, the safety of all mariners at sea.
    So, as you are aware, we are very much focused on the 
EMBARC program. It is now law. All 16 of our operators and 
carriers are in the program. We are moving forward in that 
context to create a rule this year which we have been tasked by 
law to do.
    In addition to that, as you are aware, we strengthened 
sexual assault, prevention, and response capacity and 
capability at the Academy in particular, hiring a staff of 
experienced professionals to ensure that midshipmen have the 
safety that they need there and they require, and the capacity 
to support their needs onsite at the Academy.
    We have also ensured that midshipmen sail with voice-
activated phones so they can contact anyone they care to in the 
context--while they are at sea. We have enforced concurrent 
jurisdiction now. We have entered a concurrent jurisdiction at 
the Academy so that when or should the unfortunate circumstance 
occur where there is some sort of criminal activity, the local 
police, Nassau County, Kings Point Police can respond which, 
was not true in the past.
    So, all of these things serve collectively to strengthen 
support for midshipmen--all midshipmen--at the Merchant Marine 
Academy, and broadly through the EMBARC program, support them 
at sea and also support mariners at sea in expanding safety 
such that they are valued for their professionalism and skill, 
and they can serve with confidence that any activity that 
should take place that would be a detriment to their service, 
can be handled through us and through the Coast Guard who has 
law enforcement authority.
    Mr. Carbajal. Thank you, Admiral Phillips. And let me just 
say how much I value your leadership and all that you are 
doing. When you consider the credentials that you bring to the 
table, I am really in awe of your leadership and your 
capability and all that you are doing to address these very 
important issues, so, thank you very much.
    Admiral Thomas, access to quality healthcare is a critical 
factor in recruiting and retaining servicemembers. A GAO report 
stated that the Coast Guard's clinics reported difficulty 
recruiting and retaining healthcare providers, particularly in 
remote areas. Twenty-five percent of the Coast Guard's clinics 
surveyed were located in a geographic health-provider-shortage 
area.
    What is the Coast Guard doing to better recruit and retain 
health and mental healthcare providers so that the Coasties can 
receive adequate medical care, not just the Coasties, but their 
families?
    I have been to some remote areas where Coasties and their 
families have had many challenges making appointments and 
seeking the care that they deserve and want. If you could touch 
on that, I would greatly appreciate it.
    Admiral Thomas. Yes, thank you, Congressman. Thank you for 
visiting all of our Coast Guard men and women. I know you have 
been out there, and it makes an impression.
    So, access to healthcare is a challenge across this Nation 
for everyone. It is an acute challenge for the Coast Guard when 
we are in those remote areas. We have, in the past, relied on 
DoD and military treatment facilities and Public Health Service 
doctors. We are going to continue to do that, but we realize we 
need to build our organic capacity.
    So, we are, right now, hiring dentists and doctors into the 
Coast Guard, wearing a Coast Guard uniform. We haven't done 
that before. We are going to need some help from Congress to 
get some authorities to treat them differently in our 
workforce, you will see that, and I don't think that will be a 
problem.
    We are building behavioral health technicians from our 
corpsmen. We have put more mental health professionals out 
there. We have mobile medical units that we will now move to 
places where we know we have medical--but there is a lot more 
work to be done. But there is, for the first time in the 
history of the Coast Guard, a pathway from our boot camp in 
Cape May to med school and then to serve as a doctor or a 
dentist in the Coast Guard.
    Mr. Carbajal. Thank you.
    Mr. Chair, I yield back.
    Dr. Van Drew [presiding]. Thank you, Congressman.
    I am going to yield 5 minutes to myself.
    Just a thought I have, too: You all have such a great 
history in the Coast Guard, a strong military history, a 
history of strength, and I personally think that that is part 
of the concern of some of these young people. The type of 
people that enlist in any of the services are people that very 
much believe in America and a strong America, and I think it is 
good.
    In fact, interestingly enough, if you look at the stats, 
the Marines were also down but are down the least, and I think 
part of it is that kind of feeling that they put out there 
about this is America, the greatest country on the face of the 
Earth, and we are going to be a strong unit.
    We are so concerned with so many issues other than the 
military issues, I think, at times, in my humble opinion, that 
actually can hurt us.
    Anyhow, I wanted to lead off, Administrator, with you where 
we were before and just ask you a few more questions. Have you 
ever spoken with any of the following individuals or 
organizations about wind energy development--and I won't go 
fast. Mr. William Fetzer of Burdeshaw?
    Admiral Phillips. Not to my knowledge, sir.
    Dr. Van Drew. OK. Not even shaking hands or casual 
conversation?
    Admiral Phillips. Not to my knowledge, sir.
    Dr. Van Drew. OK. Thank you.
    Apex Clean Energy?
    Admiral Phillips. Not to my knowledge.
    Dr. Van Drew. Because they were all working in the same 
area as you were, that is the only reason I ask.
    Admiral Phillips. I did not work offshore wind.
    Dr. Van Drew. Siemens or Siemens Gamesa.
    Admiral Phillips. Not to my knowledge.
    Dr. Van Drew. Liz Klein of the Bureau of Ocean Energy 
Management.
    Admiral Phillips. I speak to the Bureau of Ocean Energy 
Management on occasion. I cannot single out a specific 
individual, sir.
    Dr. Van Drew. OK. You don't know them by name. OK.
    Has promoting wind energy benefited your career, do you 
think, at all?
    Admiral Phillips. Sir, I have promoted wind energy as the 
Maritime Administrator in the context of promoting the maritime 
industry's contribution to that industry.
    Dr. Van Drew. And has the administration instructed you, in 
any way, to promote wind energy, that that would be a good 
thing? Because they are very, very strong supporters of it.
    Admiral Phillips. Again, in the context of my role as the 
Maritime Administrator, I promote the maritime industry.
    Dr. Van Drew. OK. Have you been instructed by the 
administration to not talk about any of the negative impacts of 
wind energy or offshore wind?
    Admiral Phillips. I have not been instructed by the 
administration to talk about anything in particular. I talk 
about the wind industry in the context of promoting the 
maritime industry.
    Dr. Van Drew. Do you believe there is a possibility that 
offshore wind structures--because I have spoken to people in 
the Coast Guard, offline, many, who have real concerns with 
this--in the United States of America will make maritime 
navigation less safe?
    Admiral Phillips. Sir, I would defer on navigation measures 
to the Coast Guard who regulates navigation and safety at sea. 
No particular----
    Dr. Van Drew [interrupting]. OK. So, you have no particular 
thoughts on that?
    Admiral Phillips. I would defer regulatory navigation 
matters to the Coast Guard who oversees them.
    Dr. Van Drew. OK. I will yield to--who is next--Mr. 
Garamendi. Thank you.
    Mr. Garamendi. Thank you very much.
    This committee has historically been a committee that 
focused on really critical issues. We have heard today a 
divergence from that, and I had hoped that Mr. Babin and Mr. 
Mast would have stayed around, or had asked Admiral Phillips 
the question that our ranking member asked you, so that they 
could have heard your answer on the critical issue of how we 
deal with the sexual assault, misogyny, and other problems that 
do exist in the maritime industry.
    Unfortunately, they were not here to hear your response. I 
thank you for your response. I thank you for attacking this 
issue directly and appropriately.
    Mr. Van Drew, I understand why you would find offshore wind 
to be a problem, given your district and the impact that it may 
have on your district. But I think it inappropriate to single 
out a specific individual as being the reason why or trying to 
find out if the reason why there is support for the offshore 
wind industry. Going after Admiral Phillips in such a manner as 
you have done, I believe to be inappropriate.
    Your opposition to offshore wind is your choice, and you 
should, in my view, do anything you can on the policy side of 
it, rather than on the personal side.
    Admiral Phillips has an extraordinary record of service to 
this Nation. She is an appointee of the President, and she is 
carrying out the policy of the administration. It is 
inappropriate to go after her history and background to try to 
somehow impugn her integrity.
    Now----
    Dr. Van Drew [interrupting]. Mr. Garamendi, would you yield 
a few moments?
    Mr. Garamendi. As acting chair of this committee, you can 
take this issue on when I finish my time, which is 2 minutes 
and 16 seconds from now. So, no, I will not yield.
    Now, to address the question of policy, you might have 
asked Ms. Phillips, Admiral Phillips, how she is carrying out 
the administration's policy, but you chose instead to go at her 
background and her integrity.
    This committee has not done that in the 13 years that I 
have been involved in this committee, and I would hope that we 
would not make that a common practice. Although we have heard 
it three times today, three times, from three different members 
of the committee.
    So, there are profoundly important issues, one of which you 
raised, Mr. Van Drew, and that is the issue of navigation. It 
is an important issue: Where are these towers going to be 
built? Are they going to be placed in places where there is a 
navigation issue?
    That is a profoundly important issue. That line of 
questioning to Admiral Thomas may have yielded a useful data 
point for this committee's work.
    We have profound issues, and we ought to be getting to 
those, many of which were raised by members of the committee, 
Democrat and Republican alike. So, I am going to let it go at 
that, and I yield back my time.
    Dr. Van Drew. Thank you, Mr. Garamendi. I am going to yield 
myself 5 additional minutes as acting chair.
    I don't know where to begin. Number one, I didn't attack 
you personally, nor would I. That is about as gentlemanly as I 
can be. I am pretty rough in committee. As you know, I say what 
I feel, and I say what I believe is right, and there is no 
attempt to hurt you or anybody else.
    But I think it is important in this process that we connect 
all the dots. This is a big deal. This is a really big deal. We 
are going to have millions of acres of our ocean, and thousands 
upon thousands of wind turbines that are going to affect the 
environment, that are going to affect the floor of the sea, 
that are going to affect people's jobs, whether they are in the 
real estate industry--because even the companies themselves, 
some of which I mentioned, have openly said that it is going to 
reduce the revenues that come into our area--we are very 
heavily a tourist area--by about $1 billion. And they said they 
didn't think that was a really big deal.
    It is going to affect us in ways that we can't even imagine 
yet. Imagine thousands, eventually, of these windmills, over 
1,000 feet tall, that make a considerable amount of noise, that 
have killed birds--I don't know if you have seen the pictures 
of the bald eagles that have actually been sucked into the wind 
that has been created by this--and the energy that we are going 
to net is not going to be that great.
    And it is also one of the safety and the security of the 
United States of America. Our energy is going to be controlled 
not by America. This energy is going to be controlled by 
foreign countries. So, this affects the Coast Guard. It affects 
the military. It affects the economic sector.
    And I have got to be honest with you, Mr. Garamendi, when I 
believe in something, and when I believe that I am doing the 
right thing, usually I will be like a pit bull when I am up 
here and--no, you wouldn't yield to me. Right now I am not 
going to yield to you.
    So, the truth is that this is Jeff Van Drew light, to be 
honest with you. And I also will tell you, there is probably 
nobody that has greater respect and love for the Coast Guard. 
We have brought in millions of dollars, we are doing a lot of 
work over there, and we are going to bring in more, 
particularly into Cape May because we want to make sure that 
these barracks are updated, and we are going to continue the 
process to do that and advocate for that and fight for that and 
stand up for that.
    But when I think something that is being done that is very 
wrong and very harmful, I will go down every avenue, every 
street, every direction I can take to find out--and boy, if 
that is being hard on somebody individually, to be honest with 
you, to give you credit, I think you are a whole lot tougher 
than that, to be honest with you. You are in the military, and 
I think you are a lot tougher than that. I didn't say anything 
negative about your personality.
    So, I appreciate the Coast Guard, I appreciate what you do, 
but I also appreciate we have to find out every single fact, 
every iota of information that we can.
    Mr. Garamendi, I will yield to you.
    Mr. Garamendi. If I might, sir----
    Dr. Van Drew [interrupting]. And then Mr. Carbajal. Is that 
OK?
    Mr. Garamendi. Thank you so much for yielding. In your 
comments, you went through a litany of very, very important 
issues pertaining to wind energy. All of those, from bald 
eagles to navigation, those are pertinent issues, and yes, you 
should, and we should, address those issues.
    My concern is that you were going after the admiral's 
background and veracity in your line of questioning, which had 
little or nothing to do with the profoundly important issues 
that you just listed. And I would hope that you would pursue 
all of those issues without pursuing the integrity of the 
witnesses.
    Dr. Van Drew. I am going to reclaim my time again. I never, 
ever questioned anybody's integrity. I asked simple questions 
which we are certainly allowed to do and encouraged to do, and 
respectfully, I disagree with you.
    Mr. Carbajal.
    Mr. Carbajal. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am going 
to give you Representative Salud Carbajal--marine--light as 
well. I am trying to make a point, and so, I wanted to ask you 
one question: Do you believe oil production is more 
environmentally friendly than offshore wind?
    Dr. Van Drew. I believe that currently, offshore wind, in 
this aggressive way that we are going about it, is really 
forming a great danger to the coast of New Jersey, but not only 
New Jersey, actually to Florida, you can see, of both parties, 
a lot of the Floridians who represent Florida and actually the 
coast, the east coast of the United States.
    Mr. Carbajal. I will reclaim my time, Mr. Van Drew. Let me 
just say that I am informed that you have been very supportive 
of the oil industry and----
    Dr. Van Drew [interrupting]. Well, you are informed 
incorrectly. In fact----
    Mr. Carbajal. I reclaim my time.
    Dr. Van Drew [interrupting]. I am going to reclaim my time. 
I am sorry.
    Mr. Carbajal. But Mr. Chair, I think I still have my time. 
Let me just finish. The reason I say that is that while I 
understand that you may not be a proponent of offshore wind 
energy, it is something that is being considered off my coast 
in my district. We are going through extensive environmental 
review and extensive public process.
    But there are tradeoffs, and no doubt, even renewable 
energy is not devoid of impacts. But when you consider the 
impacts of the alternative, fossil fuels, it is much, much 
better. And you may not be a supporter of it, but it is 
something that we are considering in my district.
    And I only pipe up because I hear you really focusing on 
things that, when you compare it to alternatives, it is not 
necessarily accurate. So, I only share that with you and wanted 
to give you a little bit of Salud light. And I will send you 
information about your position on oil and oil votes in the 
past.
    Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I yield back.
    Dr. Van Drew. And let me just--let me answer that.
    I have actually stood on our beaches, and have actually 
been part of those people who have opposed putting any kind of 
oil rigs or any--including President Trump, who I consider a 
friend and work with. However, always disagreed with him, 
personally spoke to him about it.
    I think it is easy to throw something out when--you 
disagree with me on this issue, and that is fine. That is 
America. But just to say that I have been a big, huge supporter 
of the oil industry, I never received $1 in donation from the 
oil industry. And I stood, again, with the people who were 
fighting oil--any kind of oil exploration off our coast, on the 
east coast there, and would continue to do so. I think that is 
bad as well and would be harmful on our east coast.
    But I think there is a lot more--everybody is--because of--
and, again, forgive me for using this word. It is the only word 
that comes to my head--the wokeness of the issue. And we are 
all worried about the--let's face it. Everybody in this room is 
concerned, Am I being careful enough? Am I saying the right 
thing about so many issues? We all have to be so woke.
    I frankly don't worry about that. I do what I believe is 
right. And I believe in the Coast Guard and the work it does. I 
do not believe that these windmills are going to be good.
    And, by the way, let me tell you. You want to know where 
the real problem is--and you know this--it is in India. It is 
in Russia. It is in China. China, we still consider a 
developing nation. They build a coal plant every week of every 
month.
    You want to know where the carbon footprint is coming from? 
It is not coming from natural gas. And that, I will say openly, 
it is not our problem. And we are going to spend a lot of 
money, a lot of time, make ourselves more vulnerable, make 
ourselves weaker as a Nation, have our energy controlled by 
other nations, hurt our economy, hurt the economy of the entire 
area, not just New Jersey, but the whole coastal area, and hurt 
our environment.
    Do you know how heartbreaking it was to see--we usually 
might have one or two whales that get beached. We have had 
about 26 of them so far, along with the dolphins. I have people 
that are concerned with this and supporting me that never voted 
for me in their life, and probably still won't. But they are 
really concerned about what is going on with these whales, and 
they are really concerned about what is happening to our 
environment.
    This is the environmental issue of our time. We are saying 
that this is good for the environment. I don't believe it is, 
and I am going to fight this fight.
    I will probably lose. There is so much big money, so much 
power behind this, so many foreign countries involved with 
this. I understand that. But I respect both of your opinions. I 
disagree with you both. And, if you want to say mean things 
about me, that is OK. I think you guys were tougher on me than 
I was on her.
    So, I--and, if there is any other--do we have anybody else, 
anybody seeking time?
    OK. So, let me--I want to thank you. I yield back.
    If there are any further questions, members of the 
committee who have not been recognized--we all have. Seeing 
none, that concludes our hearing for today.
    I would like to thank you--sincerely, I would like to thank 
all of you, for the witnesses and for your testimony.
    I ask unanimous consent that the record of today's hearing 
remain open until such time as our witnesses have provided 
answers to any questions that may be submitted to them in 
writing.
    Without objection, so ordered.
    I will also ask unanimous consent that the record remain 
open for 15 days for any additional comments and for 
information submitted by Members or witnesses to be included in 
the record of today's hearing.
    Without objection, so ordered.
    The subcommittee is adjourned.
    [Whereupon, at 12:03 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]

                                Appendix

                              ----------                              


Questions from Hon. Hillary J. Scholten to Vice Admiral Paul F. Thomas, 
        Deputy Commandant for Mission Support, U.S. Coast Guard

    Question 1. Admiral Thomas, during the hearing you were asked if 
creating a more diverse workforce leads to reverse discrimination, but 
you were interrupted before given a chance to finish your response.
    Question 1.a. Does ensuring fair and equitable opportunities to 
serve, including for those of all sexual orientations and gender 
identities, create a stronger or weaker Coast Guard workforce?
    Answer. Ensuring fair and equitable opportunities to serve our 
Nation, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other 
protected status, leads to a stronger Coast Guard. A professional, 
innovative, and mission-ready workforce is essential to our success and 
our ability to remain competitive and effective. The Coast Guard must 
continue cultivating a work environment that embraces fairness and 
equity so that every qualified American can serve and thrive.

    Question 1.b. Does the attention to diversity, equity, and 
inclusion in any way hinder the Service's ability to be mission ready 
or does it in fact improve the Coast Guard?
    Answer. Attention to diversity, equity, and inclusion improves 
readiness. Coast Guard members come from across the country and from 
different walks of life, all with a desire to serve. Understanding and 
acknowledging different perspectives and experiences enhances 
communication and collaboration and informs decision-making.

    Question 2. Flag Voice #545 ``U.S. Coast Guard Instruction on 
Leadership and Diversity Councils'' from April 22, 2021, was brought up 
and submitted to the record during the hearing. Admiral Thomas, you 
were not given an opportunity to explain this document and I believe it 
was misrepresented during the hearing regarding the Coast Guard's 
stance on DE&I leading to reverse racism. Please describe the intent of 
this document and if it in fact points to the need for diversity, 
equity, and inclusion within the Coast Guard.
    Answer. Flag Voice #545 doesn't explicitly identify the need for 
DEI within the Coast Guard, but rather announces an update to the 
Commandant Instruction 5350.9a, Leadership and Diversity Councils. This 
updated instruction reestablishes the Leadership, Excellence and 
Diversity Council to become a conduit for diversity issues and concerns 
from the field to be provided to the Commandant and renames it as the 
Inclusive Leadership Excellence and Diversity Council (ILEAD) to 
highlight the Coast Guard's focus on inclusion as a leadership concept. 
It further outlines the role of the unit level Leadership and Diversity 
Councils (LDACs) in this process. LDACs, composed of members of the 
Coast Guard's total workforce, evaluate organizational risk to 
leadership, diversity, and inclusion performance. They identify 
organizational gaps where policy and process may not align with 
leadership, diversity, and inclusion goals. LDACs suggest best 
practices to positively impact organizational climate. Flag Voice #545 
``U.S. Coast Guard Instruction on Leadership and Diversity Councils'' 
was intended to build awareness concerning the Commandant Instruction 
that describes how Leadership and Diversity Councils may operate. With 
the increasing demand for Coast Guard services, no team can afford to 
exclude anyone from mission execution or team cohesion. LDACs help 
every Coast Guard leader build fair, open, cooperative, supportive, and 
empowering climates that are essential to readiness.

                                  [all]