[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 9 (Tuesday, January 22, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H368-H370]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1500
                 HONORING THE UNITED STATES COAST GUARD

  Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to 
the resolution (H. Res. 866) honoring the brave men and women of the 
United States Coast Guard whose tireless work, dedication, and 
commitment to protecting the United States have led to the Coast Guard 
seizing over 350,000 pounds of cocaine at sea during 2007, far 
surpassing all of our previous records.
  The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
  The text of the resolution is as follows:

                              H. Res. 866

       Whereas the estimated street value of the cocaine seized by 
     the Coast Guard in 2007 is more than $4,700,000,000 or nearly 
     half of the Coast Guard's annual budget;
       Whereas the Coast Guard's at sea drug interdictions are 
     making a difference in the lives of American citizens 
     evidenced by the reduced supply of cocaine in more than 35 
     major cities throughout the United States;
       Whereas keeping illegal drugs from reaching our shores 
     where they undermine American values and threaten families, 
     schools, and communities continues to be an important 
     national priority;
       Whereas through robust interagency teamwork, collaboration 
     with international partners, and ever-more effective tools 
     and tactics, the Coast Guard has seized more than 2,000,000 
     pounds of cocaine during the past 10 years and will continue 
     to tighten the web of detection and interdiction at sea; and
       Whereas the Coast Guard men and women who, while away from 
     family and hundreds of miles from our shores, execute this 
     dangerous mission, as well as other vital maritime safety, 
     security, and environmental protection missions, with quiet 
     dedication and without want of public recognition, continue 
     to show dedication and selfless service in protecting the 
     Nation and the American people: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the United States House of Representatives 
     honors the United States Coast Guard, with its proud 217 year 
     legacy of maritime law enforcement and border protection, 
     along with the brave men and women whose efforts clearly 
     demonstrate the honor, respect, and devotion to duty that 
     ensures America's parents can sleep soundly knowing the Coast 
     Guard is on patrol.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) and the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Coble) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Oregon.


                             General Leave

  Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their 
remarks and include extraneous material on H. Res. 866.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Oregon?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Madam Speaker, the United States Coast Guard provides extraordinary 
service to our Nation on a daily basis. They are providing for homeland 
security. They are providing in this case that we will talk about in 
some depth a drug interdiction to keep our citizens safe and deprive 
drug traffickers of easy access to the United States, and they also 
provide life-saving services, in addition to other routine law 
enforcement and monitoring activities.
  This seizure is fairly extraordinary: 350,000 pounds of cocaine with 
an estimated street value of about $4.7 billion. That is more than half 
the budget of the United States Coast Guard. It is extraordinary for 
this, the smallest of our uniformed services, to have provided that 
much protection for our country.
  There are 41,000 men and women in the Coast Guard who patrol our 
Nation's shores, gather and process intelligence from around the world 
every single day of the year, as I mentioned earlier, both a homeland 
security purpose, and in this case, to interdict drug smuggling.
  Though most Americans may not often see the Coast Guard at work along 
our 95,000 miles of coastline, you can be certain that the effects of 
the service's essential work ripple down into even local neighborhoods. 
Drug dealers are feeling the effects of the Coast Guard's good work as 
they complain of short supplies in more than 35 major U.S. cities.
  The Coast Guard has been guarding our coasts and securing our borders 
since 1790. They do so without need for special recognition. They 
execute their missions daily, whether it is maritime safety, 
environmental protection, search and rescue, maritime law enforcement 
or homeland security.
  Due to the Coast Guard's aggressive enforcement in monitoring the 
Caribbean drug routes, drug smugglers have now had to resort to much 
more dangerous and expensive tactics providing a deterrent. They've had 
deterrents to specific routes, which takes them more than 1,000 miles 
offshore, which costs them more money and presents logistical 
difficulties, and yet again, gives the Coast Guard further 
opportunities to interdict.
  Although the Coast Guard is the smallest of the seven uniformed 
services, it is the Nation's leading maritime enforcement agency. 
Interdicting drugs is an Interagency effort. The Coast Guard relies 
heavily on their partnerships with numerous Federal and State agencies, 
including the Department of Defense, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 
Drug Enforcement Administration and Customs and Border Patrol to extend 
their law enforcement authority.
  These partnerships are a critical component of their interdiction 
success. They have also negotiated international bilateral agreements 
to allow them to conduct operations and stop illegal smuggling outside 
of U.S. territorial waters.
  H. Res. 866 honors the brave men and women of the Coast Guard whose 
tireless work, dedication and commitment to protecting the United 
States resulted in this extraordinary interdiction of illegal drug 
shipments in 2007, and on a daily basis protects our Nation and our 
citizens.
  I rise in strong support of H. Res. 866 and urge adoption of the 
resolution.
  Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. COBLE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

[[Page H369]]

  Madam Speaker, initially, I would like to express thanks to Chairman 
Oberstar and Subcommittee Chairman Cummings for their support of H. 
Res. 866, and I also want to express thanks to Ranking Member Mica and 
Subcommittee Ranking Member LaTourette for their support of the measure 
and the members on the subcommittee who cosponsored the resolution.
  H. Res. 866, Madam Speaker, recognizes the men and women of the 
United States Coast Guard whose efforts led to a record year in drug 
interdiction. They are to be commended for their dedication and 
selfless service in protecting the American people.
  Madam Speaker, I'm going to read some numbers imminently, and 
oftentimes when one reads numbers, it becomes boring and induces sleep, 
but these numbers I think are significant to the issue at hand.
  In 2007, the Coast Guard seized over 355,000 pounds of cocaine, 
besting the previous record by almost 20,000 pounds. These 
interdictions removed more than $4.7 billion worth of illegal drugs 
destined for our communities. Because of these efforts, today our 
families, schools and communities are more safe and secure despite the 
bold and sophisticated actions of drug smugglers.
  I'd like to take a minute to highlight a few interdictions which led 
to this year's drug seizure record. First, the Coast Guard made its 
largest maritime cocaine seizure when it intercepted a Panamanian 
vessel carrying more than 33,000 pounds of narcotics in March of last 
year. Additionally, in September of 2007, the Coast Guard interdicted 
more than 9,000 pounds of cocaine and 3,600 gallons of liquid cocaine.
  Finally, Coast Guard men and women, in collaboration with interagency 
partners, interdicted and boarded a self-propelled, semi-submersible 
vessel loaded with an estimated $352 billion worth of cocaine this past 
August.
  These success stories, Madam Speaker, are the result of an 
interagency approach to stemming the tide of illegal drugs. According 
to Director John Walters of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, 
the efforts are clearly working as the average price of cocaine has 
increased and the quality decreased.
  Since 1790, the Coast Guard has been the Nation's leading maritime 
law enforcement agency. Today, missions include drug interdiction, 
migrant interdiction, fisheries enforcement, environmental compliance 
and safe boating enforcement. Clearly, the success of the men and women 
of the Coast Guard is attributed to the multifaceted nature of this 
branch.
  The Coast Guard also confronts unique obstacles with migrant 
smugglers who, not unlike drug runners, are becoming more brazen and 
bold in their efforts. I believe we must continue to work to provide 
the enhanced penalties necessary to deter and punish dangerous, high-
speed pursuits and other patently unsafe activity associated with 
maritime alien smuggling. If we can implement increased deterrence, I 
have no doubt that the success that the Coast Guard has in drug 
interdiction will translate to similar success with migrant 
interdiction.
  As we move forward, we need to ensure that the Coast Guard has the 
appropriate resources to ensure our safety and security. Currently, the 
Coast Guard is in the midst of a fleet modernization. The overall 
intent is to provide the men and women of the Coast Guard with the 
necessary tools to protect our homeland. I applaud the actions taken by 
Admiral Allen, the commandant, to move this acquisition program, which 
is desperately needed, in the right direction.
  I also again applaud Chairman Oberstar, Subcommittee Chairman 
Cummings, as well as Congressman Mica and Congressman LaTourette, the 
ranking members of the full committee and the subcommittee, for their 
efforts to complement and oversee these actions, and I look forward to 
working with my colleagues to ensure that the Coast Guard has the 
equipment necessary to meet our homeland security and safety needs.
  Again, Madam Speaker, we commend the men and women of the United 
States Coast Guard for their drug interdiction success in 2007, and 
again, I want to thank my colleagues for their consideration and 
support of H. Res. 866.
  Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and 
I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. COBLE. Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the distinguished 
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Souder).
  Mr. SOUDER. Madam Speaker, I thank the distinguished former chairman 
from North Carolina who's been a leader in the anti-narcotics efforts 
in the Judiciary Committee and elsewhere and a tireless combatant 
against illegal drugs. I also want to thank Chairman Oberstar who 
clearly knows the importance of the Coast Guard in the Great Lakes, and 
Ranking Member John Mica who headed the Drug Subcommittee, who I 
succeeded as chairman of that subcommittee a number of years ago; 
Subcommittee Chairman Cummings, who was the ranking member of the Drug 
Subcommittee over the last 6 years; and my friend Steve LaTourette as 
well.
  This resolution has a particular personal importance to me, too, 
beyond the larger question. The big bust of 42,845 pounds of cocaine 
was primarily done by the Coast Guard Cutter Sherman. Captain Charlie 
Diaz served as a detailee to our subcommittee for a number of years, 
and then was detailed to the Speaker's office, and I want to 
congratulate Charlie in particular and his crew on the Sherman.
  It would be nice to claim that we taught him how to do this, but in 
fact, we're just really glad that while he was here on the Hill 
learning how we work that he didn't lose the skills necessary to track 
down the huge loads of cocaine and other things the Coast Guard does.
  It's also important that in this big bust where they got the 
freighter Gatun and 14 people just off the coast of Panama, it's 
critical to have the intelligence. We, earlier, heard about the joint 
agency effort, particularly JATF, the Joint Agency Task Force, based 
out of south Florida that is run by the Coast Guard and provides such 
valuable intelligence. You're just not going to pick up a boat and find 
42,000 pounds of cocaine, nearly 20 tons of cocaine. You have to have 
decent intelligence because when you look at the Bahamas and all those 
boats out there, we have to have these kind of coordinated efforts, and 
JATF is a key part of it, and drug intelligence is a key part of it.
  I want to thank Commandant Allen, Admiral Allen, in particular, for 
understanding that narcotics are part of the terrorism effort. There's 
tremendous pressure on the Coast Guard, and in the Great Lakes and 
Alaska and many places, its fisheries, search and rescue is still the 
day-to-day what they do. They have all sorts of migrant interventions 
way out even coming in towards Hawaii, coming off of Haiti, coming off 
of Cuba, huge challenges in migrant interdiction.
  They're trying to patrol and have increasing narcotics coming off 
from the Andean region into the eastern Pacific off of Mexico. We have 
routes that are going into Guatemala and Panama, like this big 
interception, biggest bust in the history of the Coast Guard. There are 
constant challenges.
  Last year, we had zero deaths from what we just were talking about, 
9/11-type terrorism, and 20,000 from drug overdose. Since 9/11, we've 
lost roughly 120,000 Americans to drug and alcohol abuse and all the 
violence that associates with that, and we lost 3,300 at 9/11.
  It's important to understand we're dealing with all sorts of 
terrorism here, and the Coast Guard has been an important element. As 
the ranking member of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border, 
Port Security and Global Anti-Terrorism, I'm one who understands how 
conflicted they are in their missions: Do they stay at port and protect 
the port? Are they supposed to be out getting a sailboat that tipped 
over? Are they supposed to be helping the fisheries? Are they supposed 
to be trying to get people in the eastern Pacific, as they go out past 
the Galapagos Islands? What about the Caribbean?
  They are so multitasked that this Congress has to understand that if 
we're going to ask the Coast Guard to tackle all these missions, there 
has to be adequate funding. We have to make sure that not only do the 
Deepwater ships float, but we also need to make

[[Page H370]]

sure they have them. The controversies over the construction doesn't 
change the need.
  As the drug traffickers move further out into the ocean, they have to 
have the ability to stay at sea longer. They can't keep running back 
into port because that's when the drug dealers, and if you can smuggle 
this much drugs, you can smuggle anthrax, you can smuggle nuclear 
parts, you can smuggle anything. Contraband is contraband.
  If we aren't out there with a physical presence, if we don't have 
boats that are fast enough, if we don't have helicopters that can come 
off, if we can't surround or disable, we're not going to be able to 
intercept narcotics or other terrorists.

                              {time}  1515

  I want to commend Commandant Allen, who also basically bailed us out 
in Katrina, because the Coast Guard has served such an important 
function in so many areas there is not enough we can do to thank the 
men and women of the Coast Guard for their bravery, for their ability 
to do multitasking. And it's very important for this Congress to honor 
them and to make sure they have adequate funding.
  Mr. OBERSTAR. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of House 
Resolution 866, which recognizes the brave men and women of the U.S. 
Coast Guard for their tireless work and dedication in guarding our 
coasts and securing our borders since 1790. I thank the distinguished 
gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Coble), a former Coastguardsman, for 
introducing this resolution.
  Last year was particularly noteworthy for the Coast Guard's drug 
interdiction efforts. In 2007, the Coast Guard seized more than 350,000 
pounds of cocaine, far surpassing all previous Coast Guard records. 
This seizure had a street value of over $4.7 billion, which equates to 
almost 50 percent of the Coast Guard's budget.
  Throughout its history, the Coast Guard has protected the nation from 
piracy, rum runners, and illegal drug and migrant smugglers. The Coast 
Guard's first documented opium seizure was in 1890, by the Revenue 
Cutter Wolcott. In 1921, the Coast Guard Cutter Seneca seized 1,500 
cases of liquor from a rum running schooner off the coast of New 
Jersey.
  Due to the Coast Guard's aggressive drug interdiction pursuits, the 
supply of cocaine has been greatly reduced in more than 35 major U.S. 
cities. This has made a significant difference in the lives of American 
citizens.
  The Coast Guard has established interagency and international 
partnerships which have contributed to its success. The United States 
negotiated bilateral agreements with 26 Caribbean and South American 
nations to allow the Coast Guard to stop illegal smuggling and conduct 
operations far outside the United States territorial seas.
  Through these partnerships and more effective tools and tactics, the 
Coast Guard seized 2 million pounds of cocaine in the past 10 years. In 
March 2007, the Coast Guard made its largest maritime cocaine seizure 
in history when it intercepted and seized a Panamanian vessel carrying 
approximately 20 tons of the dangerous narcotic.
  I commend the brave men and women of the Coast Guard for their 
selfless service and dedication to Nation and the American people. They 
work tirelessly to fulfill the numerous missions of the service, from 
search and rescue and environmental protection to maritime law 
enforcement and homeland security. We can live each day in solace 
knowing that the Coast Guard is on watch.
  I urge my colleagues to join with me in strongly supporting H. Res. 
866.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of 
H. Res. 866, introduced by my distinguished colleague from North 
Carolina, Representative Coble, honoring the brave men and women of the 
United States Coast Guard whose tireless work, dedication, and 
commitment to protecting the United States have led to the Coast Guard 
seizing over 350,000 pounds of cocaine at sea during 2007, far 
surpassing all of our previous records. This bipartisan legislation 
honors the Coast Guard's important 217-year legacy of protecting 
American borders and enforcing the laws of the sea.
  The maritime safety laws of this country were written in 
understanding and appreciation of the peril which mariners face when 
they get on a ship, go out to sea, whether on the saltwater or the 
fourth coastline of this country, the Great Lakes.
  Americans put their trust every day in the Coast Guard to regulate 
safety on ferry boats and other types of vessels conveying passengers, 
or on liquefied natural gas tankers that come into our ports. We have 
to ensure that the Coast Guard will get their full funding needed to 
carry out those responsibilities.
  The United States Coast Guard is the smallest of the seven uniformed 
services of the United States. Their mission is to protect the public, 
environment, and the economic and security interest of the United 
States' coasts, ports, and inland waterways. During the Coast Guard's 
217-year legacy of border protection and maritime law enforcement, 
modern technologies have made their job more perilous. This, however, 
has not deterred our Nation's brave young men and women from conducting 
the dangerous duty of drug interdiction.
  In 2007, the Coast Guard seized more than 350,000 pounds of cocaine 
at sea. The street value of this seizure is worth over an estimated 
$4.7 billion. The sum is nearly one-half of the Coast Guard's annual 
budget.
  The Coast Guard's at-sea drug seizures have reduced the supply of 
cocaine in more than 35 major cities across the United States, 
consequently making a positive difference in our American communities. 
This important legislation recognizes the overwhelming contributions of 
the Coast Guard to the American community. It furthermore applauds the 
Coast Guard for their commitment to participating as part of a robust 
interagency team and international partners that has contributed to the 
seizure over 2 million pounds of cocaine in the past 10 years.
   I commend the men and women of the Coast Guard, who spend countless 
hours at sea away from their families while they unremittingly work to 
execute their service's mission. I acknowledge the commitment and 
selfless service required to protect our Nation and the American people 
done by Coast Guard men and women without want of public recognition.
  I strongly urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this important 
legislation, and, in so doing, giving our men and women in uniform the 
respect and recognition they deserve.
  Mr. COBLE. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) that the House suspend the rules 
and agree to the resolution, H. Res. 866.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds 
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the 
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be 
postponed.

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