[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 119 (Wednesday, September 21, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10304-S10307]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SENATE RESOLUTION 246--TO EXPRESS THE SENSE OF THE SENATE REGARDING THE
MISSIONS AND PERFORMANCE OF THE UNITED STATES COAST GUARD IN RESPONDING
TO HURRICANE KATRINA
Ms. SNOWE (for herself, Ms. Cantwell, Ms. Mikulski, Mr. Inouye, Mr.
Stevens, Mr. Martinez, Mr. Lott, and Ms. Murkowski) submitted the
following resolution; which was considered and agreed to:
S. Res. 246
Whereas the United States Coast Guard has been charged by
Congress with missions central to protecting the lives and
well-being of individuals and communities in the United
States, including protecting homeland security, conducting
search and rescue of lives in danger, protecting marine
environments from pollution, maintaining maritime safety and
aids to navigation, enforcing Federal fishing laws, and
intercepting illegal drugs and migrants before they reach our
shores;
Whereas the Coast Guard anticipated the potential for
significant loss of life and property as Hurricane Katrina
approached Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama and made
landfall on August 29, 2005 and, in advance of the storm,
relocated its personnel, vessels, and aircraft out of harm's
way;
Whereas Hurricane Katrina made landfall as a Category 4
hurricane with winds reaching 175 miles per hour and massive
storm surges, the combination of which left a trail of
devastation unprecedented on United States soil, as it
leveled countless homes, businesses, and other structures,
displaced millions of people from their communities, and
otherwise made coastal urban and rural areas unliveable;
Whereas the Coast Guard immediately deployed nearly 1,000
personnel, including captains, crew, pilots, rescue swimmers,
pollution response teams, and other specialists and
reservists, from stations all over the country, to coastal
areas affected by the hurricane, for a total regional force
size of approximately 3,619 personnel;
Whereas Coast Guard personnel who had never personally
worked together before began to work as teams to conduct and
coordinate search and rescue operations while Hurricane
Katrina continued to bear down on the central Gulf of Mexico
shoreline;
Whereas the Coast Guard rescued or evacuated 33,544
individuals as of September 21, 2005, a number that
represents eight times the number of lives saved by the Coast
Guard in an average year;
Whereas three Coast Guard pollution response Strike Teams
responded to 1,129 pollution incidents as of September 20,
2005, which include total discharges of more than 7 million
gallons of oil, unknown amounts of sewage, and unknown
quantities of other toxic chemicals, and the Coast Guard has
contained or otherwise closed 426 of these cases;
Whereas Coast Guard buoy tenders have responded to 964
discrepancies in buoys and other aids to navigation and have
restored 39 of 48 critical aids to navigation as of September
21, 2005;
Whereas the costs of responding to Hurricane Katrina have
depleted the Coast Guard's operations and maintenance budget
for fiscal year 2005 and are rapidly depleting its budget for
fiscal year 2006, and the Coast Guard's costs associated with
this hurricane are anticipated to exceed $500 million;
Whereas the Coast Guard performed its hurricane response
missions largely with outdated legacy assets, increasing the
wear and tear on these assets while foregoing regularly
scheduled maintenance activities in the interest of
sustaining its surge in life-saving operations;
Whereas the Coast Guard already conducts its missions with
the 40th oldest fleet of the 42 nations with Coast Guard or
naval fleets;
Whereas the Coast Guard's program, known as Deepwater, for
modernizing its fleet of vessels and aircraft, is vital for
increasing the capabilities in performing its missions in the
face of ever-increasing natural and human threats;
Whereas the Deepwater program requires sustained Federal
funding commitments in order for the citizens of the United
States to realize the benefits of the Coast Guard having
state-of-the-art vessels, aircraft, technologies, and
interoperable communication equipment;
Whereas in addition to covering operation and maintenance
costs of a rapidly aging fleet, the Coast Guard needs to
rebuild several Coast Guard facilities in Louisiana,
Mississippi, and Alabama, including Station Gulfport which
was completely destroyed and where personnel are now working
in trailers amidst the ruins of that station;
Whereas the Coast Guard needs a strong Federal funding
commitment to ensure that all of its unexpected expenditures
during its response to Katrina are reimbursed;
Whereas more than 700 Coast Guard personnel stationed in
the Gulf region lost their homes and all personal property
and are now living on overcrowded Coast Guard vessels and in
makeshift shelters;
Whereas before, during, and after the landfall of Hurricane
Katrina, Coast Guard personnel exhibited determination and a
full commitment to their missions, and the Coast Guard has
proven to be one of the most resourceful and capable services
in the United States government;
Whereas before, during, and after the landfall of Hurricane
Katrina, Coast Guard personnel performed their missions with
the highest level of bravery and self-sacrifice, and their
effectiveness in performing their missions is unparalleled in
the United States government;
Whereas the Coast Guard has an operational and command
structure that allowed it to quickly take a leadership role
in saving lives, without waiting for instruction or
permission to act;
Whereas the Coast Guard's operational and command structure
continues to serve as a model for other agencies that need to
respond quickly to large-scale natural and man-made
disasters;
Whereas the Coast Guard's effective leadership in
responding to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and the
appointment of Vice Admiral Thad Allen as the primary Federal
officer in charge of this response, is helping to restore the
public's confidence in the Federal response effort: Now,
therefore, be it
Resolved, by the Senate That it is the sense of the Senate
that--
(1) the United States Coast Guard should receive Congress's
highest commendation for its tremendous and highly effective
response to the events surrounding Hurricane Katrina;
(2) the United States Congress should commit to providing
the Coast Guard with the resources it needs to modernize and
maintain its fleet of vessels and aircraft; and
(3) the Administration should ensure that the Coast Guard
receives sufficient funding to cover its unexpected
operational and capital costs associated with Hurricane
Katrina.
Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, I rise today to commend and praise the
extraordinary response of the U.S. Coast Guard to Hurricane Katrina, to
demonstrate why that response exemplifies the imperative of providing
that service with the modern assets required to carry out these
lifesaving missions, and to submit a resolution recognizing the awe-
inspiring efforts of the men and women of the U.S. Coast Guard.
I just visited the gulf coast region on Monday with the Commandant of
the Coast Guard, Tom Collins, and we were guided by Eighth District
Commander ADM Robert Duncan. What I saw and heard on that day is a
story of heroism and a relentless can-do attitude that is nothing short
of miraculous. The human spirit I witnessed was truly transcendental
and a level I had never before experienced.
As we well know, Hurricane Katrina was the worst natural disaster
ever to visit itself upon the United States, with an almost
unimaginable magnitude of devastation and loss. The scale of the
destruction has been most horrifically reflected in the faces of those
we have seen over the past week, faces etched with an indelible and
almost unimaginable sorrow, suffering, and burden. Their images have
reverberated throughout a country in solidarity with their terrible
plight. In Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama lives have been forever
transformed along with the landscape, as we have witnessed untold
scenes of homes that no longer exist, floods that ravaged entire
neighborhoods and cities, fires that consumed what remains of
buildings, and men, women, and children missing loved ones. We have
also seen and heard the stories of those individuals who have rushed to
the aid of our fellow man, demonstrating that no human or natural act
can deprive us of our unyielding and singularly determined spirit.
While the hurricane winds and rain have long since dissipated--and now
we have anticipation of Hurricane Rita--we all have the collective
concern and strength of this Nation that continues unabated, unbroken,
undaunted, and unflagging.
We must now bring to bear all of our collective will and resources
over what will undoubtedly be a long but ultimately victorious process
of reclaiming the gulf coast towns and cities for the future. I extend
my thoughts and prayers to my colleagues, Senators Cochran, Lott,
Sessions, Shelby, Landrieu, and Vitter, as they work to guide their
constituents and their families through these most difficult of times.
I will certainly do everything I can to assist them and the citizens of
their States.
Today, as chair of the Fisheries and Coast Guard Subcommittee, I
believe it is entirely appropriate to focus the Nation's attention on
the performance of the U.S. Coast Guard in response to Hurricane
Katrina, as I believe it is an
[[Page S10305]]
exemplary model for future responses. As I do so, I also thank all of
our military Active-Duty and Reserve for their heroic service in the
gulf shore region. Their performance under these conditions has been
outstanding and unprecedented on American soil.
As a result of the U.S. Coast Guard's unparalleled performance and
operations responding to the unfathomable destruction along the Gulf of
Mexico, the plans for which were put into motion even before the storm
subsided, thousands of children, senior citizens, and entire families
are sleeping safely tonight. Indeed, the heart-wrenching stories I
heard during my visit to the Coast Guard--of crews rescuing families
trapped in attics, of children separated from their parents, rescue
swimmers tapping on roofs seeking signs of life in submerged houses--
will be forever etched in my own mind. People waving towels from
windows signifying the need for help, pregnant women about to go into
labor being hoisted into awaiting helicopters, rescue crews busting
into windows and roofs because there was no means of escape for the
occupants--the stories are real, seemingly endless, and all faced with
an unrelenting sense of duty and humanity by the men and women of the
Coast Guard.
Indeed, over the past few weeks, as we see in this chart, we have
witnessed time and time again from news sources and television stations
the perilous helicopter rescues occurring each and every day. There is
an outstanding example of one on this chart that shows exactly the kind
of circumstance the Coast Guard has to perform in which to save life
after life. Incredibly, the Coast Guard, as of September 20, has saved
33,544 lives. That is the equivalent of the number of rescues performed
by the Coast Guard in 8 to 10 years. They accomplished those rescue
missions in just the past 2 weeks. The Coast Guard air station in New
Orleans, which I visited on Monday, under the incredible leadership of
CAPT Bruce Jones, has saved 6,471 lives, almost double the 3,689 lives
the station had saved over its previous 50 years of operation.
This chart shows the level of catastrophe to which the Coast Guard
responded. I talked to a rescue swimmer who genuinely believed that if
he had completed 15 rescues that day, it somehow wasn't enough. What is
perhaps most remarkable is that the Coast Guard simply did not rescue
these people and deliver them to a nearby field or highway overpass
until they could get further help. Nor did they forget that other
family members remained in peril, not yet rescued. Rather, the men and
women of the Coast Guard took it upon themselves to ensure to the best
of their ability that families would be kept intact and assisted those
they rescued even after the rescue operation was complete. They
actually returned to overpasses to follow up with those whom they had
rescued. And if they still needed additional assistance or they hadn't
been taken to where they should have been going with the medical rescue
crews, they made that happen.
They got them water if they needed it. If they required food, they
brought them food. As ADM Robert Duncan, District Commander for the
gulf region, so eloquently expressed:
When the Coast Guard rescue teams touched a person, they
owned them.
This meant the Coast Guard was making itself responsible for their
continued well-being. I ask my colleagues, what could be a more
touching or profound testament to the boundless will and compassion
that the U.S. Coast Guard exhibited during this operation? The people
of the Coast Guard have conducted themselves oblivious to the true
level of their own personal sacrifice and seemingly without regard to
the horrific conditions in which they serve. Seventy percent of them
alone lost their houses; lost everything, that is, but their sense of
duty to their fellow human beings in distress and despair.
The fact is, the Coast Guard has been, is, and will always remain a
vital component of America's national security and disaster response.
Coast Guard personnel risk their lives each and every day protecting
our Nation and saving lives, no more so than during this national
tragedy. Leadership, as we all know, starts from the top. For the U.S.
Coast Guard, that individual is ADM Tom Collins. Admiral Collins has
been a solid steady force in ensuring the rapid and safe execution of
rescue operations.
In the midst of the storm and bureaucratic interagency chaos, the
Coast Guard remained resolved, organized, focused, and responsive to
those in desperate need.
The bottom line is that the members of the Coast Guard did not wait
to be told to conduct their mission. They knew their mission. They
refused to let anything, including redtape, get in their way. When they
needed fuel for helicopters, they found fuel. When they needed water
for their crews or for those they rescued, they found water. They did
not ask if an operation was actually a State responsibility or local
responsibility or another Federal agency's responsibility. They made it
their responsibility. They took ownership of the life-and-death tasks
at hand. Again, the can-do attitude of the Coast Guard is what allowed
them to shine.
As Vice Admiral Allen, the principal Federal officer in charge of the
relief operation, so simply stated:
The Coast Guard has a bias for action.
And from all I have seen, I could not agree more.
Indeed, the results are a living testament to the service's
efficiency and organization and the superlative leadership of Admiral
Collins.
The Coast Guard had the foresight and the wherewithal to pre-position
its assets before the storm struck and to respond rapidly to its
aftermath. Moreover, the Coast Guard's exceptional planning led to not
a single loss of a Coast Guard plane or boat and enabled it to be on
the scene immediately upon the passage of the storm. This planning
expertise and management of assets should be the example for all
Federal agencies to follow.
The Coast Guard also sent to the area personnel from Coast Guard
stations from around the country to help with the effort as part of its
well-conceived plan. These personnel specialize in different fields and
had never previously worked together yet got the job done as if they
had been on the same team forever.
I think of the 160 crew members attached to the Coast Guard cutter
Harriet Lane, a 270-foot cutter I visited on Monday, docked in New
Orleans, that normally berths just 100 crew members. Yet all of those
aboard worked flawlessly together, overcoming obstacle after obstacle.
In one instance, due to the cutter's inability to make water from
oil-polluted river water, the crew set out to procure water from
wherever possible. This mission led them to the discovery of water held
in tanks controlled by the Forest Service on the pier. Unable to simply
give them the water due to bureaucratic hurdles, the Coast Guard found
a contractor who was able to pump water from their tanks into the
cutter.
This is a ridiculous hurdle that should never have existed in the
first place. Yet, once again, the Coast Guard didn't waste time with
bureaucratic paperwork; instead, they got the job done.
The bottom line is, from what we have seen to date, I believe that
the Coast Guard's Herculean efforts provides a model for the proper
planning and execution of a mission to respond to a national emergency
or crisis. And on that note, I was certainly pleased that Vice Admiral
Allen was selected to coordinate the Federal response to Katrina. He
will bring that Coast Guard sensibility to the entire operation.
These astounding results, however, do not come without a cost. The
Coast Guard has already used the funds allocated for search and rescue
operations for the entire year and beyond. Furthermore, the extensive
rate of use during the rescue mission is also degrading Coast Guard
assets faster and delaying necessary maintenance.
Supplemental funding, which the Coast Guard has not yet received, is
essential to ensure that cutters, small boats, and aircraft can operate
and continue its heroic service in the coming months.
The Coast Guard has sustained damage to several small boat stations
and air stations and to other facilities throughout the region. The
Coast Guard station in Gulfport, MS, simply no longer exists.
[[Page S10306]]
The Coast Guard is actively assisting Americans, and we in the
Congress must return the favor and start helping the Coast Guard by
providing them with crucial supplemental funding to cover the entirety
of their operational requirements and to provide the necessary funding
to replace its lost infrastructure.
In that light, I have sent a letter to the Director of the Office of
Management and Budget encouraging him to include a funding line in the
next supplemental appropriations bill for the Coast Guard. I thank my
many colleagues who have joined me in support of this request.
In addition, the Coast Guard is charged with maintaining all the aids
to navigation within the region, including those of the Mississippi
River. These aids were either totally lost or severely damaged.
Again, it shows on this chart that Congress has also mandated the
Coast Guard to respond to marine environmental pollution, which is now
reaching untold levels of hazardous contamination throughout the
Mississippi and Gulf of Mexico, and I think it is an indication of all
the responses to the contamination of oil spills in the region to which
the Coast Guard has had to respond. More than 7 million gallons of oil
has polluted the water in New Orleans.
The bottom line is, not only have the people of the Coast Guard been
risking their own lives to save the 33,544 other individuals, but they
have also responded to hazardous liquid spills in the region, conducted
4,688 sorties, carried out 11,548 small boat and cutter sorties,
repaired vital aids to navigation to facilitate the flow of commerce in
the Mississippi, and have assisted in the replenishment of critical
supplies to thousands of displaced persons.
Yet, as capable and successful as the Coast Guard has been in
carrying out all of its missions, including opening the ports and the
waterways and drug interdiction--they are even doing that down there in
combination with all of these other missions--this service was already
stretched thin in the aftermath of 9/11. Unless Congress pledges to
equip the service with modern equipment, we jeopardize the success of
any future missions. The Coast Guard requires new cutters and aircraft
now, and it can start this process only if Congress fully funds
Deepwater, the service's recapitalization program for procuring new
cutters, small boats, and aircraft.
The Senate version of the Coast Guard bill authorizes a total of $8.2
billion for the Coast Guard, $400 million over the administration's
request. Within that request, Deepwater authorized $1.1 billion, $134
million over the administration's request. We must ensure our numbers,
the Senate numbers, which are the higher numbers, are maintained in
conference of this legislation.
By accomplishing this, it will allow for a targeted acceleration of
required assets, those resources deemed most critical to the Coast
Guard now.
The current situation can only be categorized as dire. It is a
national disgrace that this service that is integral to search and
rescue operations, integral to our homeland security, as we saw in the
aftermath of September 11 when they immediately secured New York
Harbor, integral to our fishing industry, would be operating the 40th
oldest fleet out of 42 in the world. Only the Philippines and Mexico
have older fleets. Deepwater is designed to remedy this situation, but
in 20 to 25 years, rather than as I have insisted and I have requested,
that Deepwater needs to be completed in 10 to 15 years at the outset.
If anyone questions the condition of the Coast Guard assets, I
suggest they go out and sail on an aging cutter, go fly on an aging
airframe, and you will witness firsthand the conditions that we
continue to place upon the dedicated members of the Coast Guard. You
only have to recall the graphic portrayals of what occurred during
Hurricane Katrina, when these Coast Guard men and women performed under
such perilous circumstances, when they were able to save so many
thousands and thousands of men and women--in fact, more than 33,544
individuals under very hazardous circumstances and conditions.
At my subcommittee's June 21 hearing on the revised Deepwater
implementation plan, we once again revisited the Coast Guard's current
status of its legacy assets and the extremely high maintenance costs
associated with them. The inescapable conclusion was the Coast Guard
cannot continue on the path it is currently being forced to walk. It
requires the additional money, the additional cutters and aircraft, and
the latest technologies associated with command, control, and
communications.
On my visit to the cutter Harriet Lane in New Orleans this last week,
I was briefed on the extreme difficulties encountered in trying to
establish effective communications among Federal, State, and local
agencies. This cutter does not have the communications capabilities of
what a new Deepwater cutter would be able to provide.
In fact, when cell phones didn't work and text messages were limited,
they tried to find old satellite phones to use to communicate. We know
that the new equipment on the new ships would provide this kind of
capability that is absolutely essential. They would be paramount in
streamlining and making these rescue efforts more efficient.
Yet, even without this new technology, the Coast Guard, as I said,
made it work with the resources they had at their disposal. With an
inadequate amount of satellite receivers, the cutters still prioritized
and switched communication channels to effectively prosecute the
mission.
Yet the undeniable truth is, such a workaround should not have to
happen and would not happen on new Deepwater cutters.
The Coast Guard is a service clearly already populated with heroes.
We should not ask them all to be MacGuivers, as well as jury-rigging
and Rube Goldberging rescue operations already perilous enough.
Doesn't America deserve better? Don't the men and women of the Coast
Guard who perform so heroically deserve more from us than fighting 21st
century threats and the war on terrorism with equipment from World War
II?
Think about it: Some of these ships were operating when Emperor
Hirohito of Japan surrendered to the United States, operating through
the Korean war, the Vietnam war, the Cold War, the fall of the Berlin
Wall and the Soviet Union, and yet they remain as part of our U.S.
Coast Guard in the year 2005. Some vessels are so old the Coast Guard
has to go to maritime museums to find spare parts.
How can we relegate the Coast Guard to this fate? As you look on this
chart, USA Today did a very indepth story on the Coast Guard and its
aging assets of ships and aircraft. It says, and this was done July 6:
Aging Fleet Could Threaten Service's Anti-terror Mission.
That is what it is all about. We should have learned in the aftermath
of September 11 what we need to accelerate, what we need to establish
for priorities and making sure the agency we ask so much from, the
Coast Guard, that we ask to do so much for so little, gets at least the
equipment they deserve when they are performing these risky missions,
as we have seen so graphically over the last few weeks.
How can we relegate the Coast Guard to this fate? How can a nation of
such resources fail to provide them to this indispensable service?
While the people of the Coast Guard certainly go above and beyond the
call of duty, the very equipment they sail and fly on has gone way
beyond the call of duty, and it is time they were retired for good.
Yet the Coast Guard will continue to operate one of the oldest fleets
for another 20 to 25 years with the current funding formula that is
being made available for the Deepwater program. We are not just talking
about ships. Under Deepwater, vital aircraft, including the outdated
HH-65 Dolphin and the HH-60 Jayhawk helicopters we have all seen
conducting the rescue hoists on television, would be reengined and
reoutfitted with improved navigation and radar equipment. But if
Deepwater is not fully funded, these crucial improvements will not
occur on a timely basis, preventing the Coast Guard from being fully
capable when the next tragedy strikes.
These are not exaggerated predictions. Pilots told me firsthand that
with the new technology, they could have seen much more clearly in the
[[Page S10307]]
total darkness that loomed over New Orleans, allowing them to identify
downed power lines, vertical obstructions, and citizens requiring
assistance.
That is why I repeatedly urged the administration and the Congress,
for the last 4 years, to increase the funding for this program
immediately and why I successfully fought to include a report on the
possibility of accelerating the Deepwater program from a 20-to-25-year
program to a 10-year program in the Homeland Security bill.
The fact is, by reducing the duration of implementation for the
program, the Coast Guard could receive these vital assets 10 to 15
years sooner, and not a moment too soon in my book. We cannot forget
that ships are not constructed in weeks or months. They take years to
design and fabricate.
Now, only one national security cutter is in fabrication. The
offshore patrol cutter is not in production, and the fast response
cutter remains in the design phase. So we must act now.
Moreover, the unequivocal findings of the report I required was
acceleration of the Deepwater program is not only feasible, it would
also save the American taxpayers a billion dollars in total acquisition
costs.
So, I ask, what exactly is there not to get? By accelerating the
Deepwater program, we would provide desperately-needed updated
equipment to this premier security and search and rescue service, while
saving taxpayer money, not to mention ultimately saving lives. Simply
put, it defies the laws of common sense to not implement Deepwater as
soon as possible.
That is why I have recently sent the appropriations committee a
letter, urging them to increase the funding for Deepwater in this
year's Homeland Security appropriations bill. Specifically, in the
Senate version of the Coast Guard's authorization bill, we authorize
$1.1 billion to be appropriated for Deepwater. This level will keep the
Coast Guard on the proper road to guide them toward a modern maritime
fleet of cutters and aircraft, able to perform their vital missions in
the 21st century.
It is critically important we not only provide the level of funding
but we also ensure that we accelerate the Deepwater acquisition program
to 10 to 15 years as absolutely vital and essential.
So I hope we would be able to also release from the Senate the Coast
Guard authorization legislation that allows for the increased funding,
that allows for this process to continue and, in addition, to get the
higher amount of the appropriations and to get the acceleration of the
Deepwater program.
That is what I ask, that we release the Coast Guard authorization
bill that is bottled up in the Senate. We need to remove all of the
excuses and allow this process to go forward for the service that has
conducted itself so courageously and heroically during the course of
Hurricane Katrina.
In visiting with the men and women of the various Coast Guard
stations, in New Orleans as well as the station in Gulfport, MS, I can
tell you not one was complaining--not one. In fact, one admiral said,
you know, we have just been telling you some of the obstacles we had to
overcome to do our job, and we will do it no matter what, no matter the
circumstance. We are asking you not to use it as a rationale to defer
the needed repairs, maintenance, and the new equipment for the future
because we don't know what is in the future when it comes to
unforeseeable events. We cannot predict. We did not predict 9/11. We
predicted Hurricane Katrina. Look what happened. It was the Coast Guard
that performed that mission. But we have to make sure that the Coast
Guard receives the funding it requires in the future in order to enable
it to respond as it did during the course of Hurricane Katrina. We
cannot build ships nor aircraft overnight. It takes several years to
get these ships in the pipeline.
So unless we get the authorization bill out of the Senate and out of
the entire Congress that we have been urging for months to get done, to
have an accelerating program, to get the appropriations that are
essential, that cannot happen. So I am pleading with the Senate,
pleading with the Congress to do what is right for this magnificent
agency that is, by the way, on the frontlines for protecting us and our
homeland security, one of the greatest problems of which, as you know,
is the transshipment of weapons of mass destruction.
The Coast Guard is also essential and a vital component in protecting
our homeland.
They are a multimission agency. They are asked, as I said earlier, to
do so much with so little. And even as they are performing down there
in the gulf, they didn't ignore their other responsibilities--because
of homeland security--for keeping the waterways open, which they have
now done in the gulf, because it is important we continue the commerce,
the interdiction of drugs; as a matter of fact, even over the weekend,
providing the humanitarian assistance that is so vital, cleaning up the
oil spills and the pollution that has occurred. As I showed you in a
previous chart, as we have seen here in the active response that they
have provided in so many areas, because of the spill of oil that is
polluting the area and contaminating the water, that has complicated
the task of the cleanup. You can't ask the Agency to do more in
addition to the saving of 33,000 lives. When I talked to the rescue
swimmers and the pilots, I asked them what was the greatest challenge
and they said: You know, we were overwhelmed, we were overwhelmed
because we had so many people to rescue, and we feel we are doing
nothing in a day when we are rescuing 15 individuals--under, as you can
imagine, some very difficult and dire circumstances.
I ask my colleagues, what more does the Coast Guard have to do to
prove its immense value to America? After the service's heroic and well
planned efforts in responding to Hurricane Katrina, they have clearly
and convincingly shown that all Americans are well served by the United
States Coast Guard.
Therefore, I am proud to send this resolution to the desk for
consideration in the Senate, which gives recognition to the valiant
work of the Coast Guard. The resolution also notes the necessity of
improving the Coast Guard's aging fleet of ships and aircraft. I hope
all of my colleagues can support this resolution.
Now is the time for us in the Congress to fully recognize the
importance of the Coast Guard and provide the service with the assets
it needs to do the job now and into the future. The time has come, it
is now our responsibility and our solemn duty to ensure it has the
resources needed in order to serve the citizens of the United States
for decades to come and I hope my colleagues will join me in that
effort.
It is vital because they are on the frontlines. They responded
magnificently, and they should be recognized and rewarded and applauded
for the job they have done and the job they will continue to do in the
future. I thank the Chair.
Ms. MIKULSKI. Will the Senator yield to me for a request.
Ms. SNOWE. Yes, I am happy to yield.
Ms. MIKULSKI. Will the Senator allow me to be a cosponsor of her
resolution?
Ms. SNOWE. Yes, I will be happy to.
Ms. MIKULSKI. I compliment her for her forceful words on the Coast
Guard, and I wish to align myself with them, as I fully believe in the
remarks of the Senator.
Ms. SNOWE. I am delighted to add my colleague, the Senator from
Maryland, as a cosponsor. She has been an ardent advocate and supporter
of the Coast Guard. I thank the Senator.
I ask unanimous consent to add the Senator from Maryland as a
cosponsor of this resolution.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
____________________