[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 15]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 21095]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 LEGISLATION TO ALLOW CONGRESSIONAL NOMINATIONS TO THE U.S. COAST GUARD

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BENNIE G. THOMPSON

                             of mississippi

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, December 15, 2011

  Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to introduce 
legislation today with the following Members: Mr. Elijah Cummings, Mr. 
John Duncan, and Mr. Pedro Pierluisi.
  Currently, Members of Congress are allowed to nominate a limited 
number of candidates to the U.S. Military Academy, the U.S. Naval 
Academy, the U.S. Air Force Academy, and the U.S. Merchant Marine 
Academy. However, the smallest of the five federal service academies--
the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, USCGA--does not accept congressional 
nominations.
  Instead, the USCGA admits candidates through a process that closely 
resembles the admissions processes of civilian colleges and 
universities. Without a congressional nominations process, the 
applicant pool of candidates to the USCGA is predictably less 
geographically diverse than at the other military service academies. 
The inevitable result of a less geographically diverse applicant pool 
is a less geographically diverse class. The statistics bear this out; 
in fact, there was not a single appointment from Arkansas, Delaware, 
Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, 
Vermont, American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and 
U.S. Virgin Islands in the USCGA Class of 2015.
  Under my legislation, starting in academic year 2013, each Member of 
Congress would be allowed to nominate up to three qualified candidates 
to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. In turn, the Coast Guard would be 
required to fill a quarter of slots for the incoming class from the 
expanded pool of qualified, geographically-diverse applicants received 
through the congressional nominations process. Then, in each subsequent 
academic year, half of the slots in each incoming class would have to 
be filled through the congressional nominations process.
  My legislation will not require the Coast Guard to lower its student 
selection criteria or increase the size of the student population. To 
the contrary, it anticipates that the Coast Guard will utilize its 
criteria to select the best candidates from the pool of Member-
nominated candidates for half of the slots in the incoming class, just 
as it will do to fill the slots in the other half of the incoming 
class. My legislation simply seeks to make Congress a partner in 
helping to put talented young people--from every corner of the 
country--on the path to a rewarding career in the U.S. Coast Guard.
  I urge support of this commonsense, bipartisan legislation.

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