[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 27 (Friday, March 11, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 11, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                        MORE MISSION THAN CENTS

  (Mr. GOSS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GOSS. Mr. Speaker, in the mayhem to move the budget resolution, 
the Budget Committee has recommended a major reduction in the Coast 
Guard acquisition, construction and improvements account. With less 
than 24 hours to review the 227-page report, many of us nearly missed 
this damaging cut. A full $100 million below the President's request, 
this recommendation is penny-wise and pound-foolish. The Federal 
Government is already straining and failing to control illegal 
immigration--we all know that we must maintain adequate capability at 
our maritime borders.
  Additionally, the Coast Guard is an organization that we have given 
more missions than cents--as in dollars and cents. Its duty list is 
vast, growing, and very costly to fulfill. By failing to provide 
adequate funding for fiscal year 1995, we doom the Coast Guard to an 
endless game of catch-up, we risk abandoning Americans to needless 
danger on the high seas, and we send a steady green light signal to 
high seas smugglers and drug runners rather than the flashing blue 
lights of Coast Guard enforcement.
  Mr. Speaker, we must correct the budget.

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