[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 17107-17108]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      COAST GUARD REAUTHORIZATION

  Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I rise to say what an important day it 
is for the U.S. Coast Guard. Our communities benefit from the services 
provided by the men and women who have answered the call to serve. The 
reason I say that is because we have passed a bill that gives 43,000 
Active-Duty Coast Guard members the support they need.
  It is a worthy tribute to a force of men and women who in 2011 alone 
saved 3,800 lives across the United States, confiscated 166,000 pounds 
of cocaine, and secured over 472,000 vessels before they arrived at our 
ports. This will give the Coast Guard the funds it needs to upgrade 
equipment and purchase the right vessels for carrying out every 
mission.
  This kind of work exemplifies the heroes such as CPO Terrell Horne of 
California. Officer Horne died in the line of duty last week while 
chasing down drug smugglers off the coast of California. Our thoughts 
are with his family, friends and the Coast Guard.
  His actions and service remind us of the dangerous tasks the men and 
women of the Coast Guard do on a daily basis, and that is why it was so 
important that we passed this reauthorization bill.
  We could not have done this reauthorization without the many hours 
Senator Begich put in to help get it across the finish line. He knows 
how important the Coast Guard is to the men and women in the Pacific 
Northwest and to my State, Washington.
  The Coast Guard is part of our maritime culture in the Pacific 
Northwest, and this bill helps the Coast Guard watch over our people, 
our businesses, and protect our coastline.
  I would like to expound on three provisions that were particularly 
helpful for us in the Northwest. One, this legislation helps to protect 
the Polar Sea, an icebreaker based in Seattle; two, it helps us clean 
up tsunami debris that is already hitting the west coast; and three, it 
analyzes the potential risk of tar sands supertankers, tankers and

[[Page 17108]]

barges in our waters off Washington State.
  In October of this year, I visited Vigor Shipyards in Seattle where 
our heavy-duty icebreaker fleet is currently serviced. These ships are 
a testament to American shipbuilding prowess and ingenuity, and, 
inspecting them up close, we can see they are the most critical tool 
for the United States in our economic security and national security in 
the Arctic. We see that building icebreakers means jobs to Washington 
State, and that is why in this final package, the importance of these 
ships--the Polar Sea in particular was prioritized. The Polar Sea was 
in danger of being scrapped before we passed this bill.
  There is no denying that we need to build a new icebreaker fleet for 
our Arctic economic future, and for the Coast Guard and Navy Arctic 
missions. But, these specialized vessels will take up to 10 years to 
build. In the meantime, we want to make sure U.S. companies can 
continue to develop business in the Arctic and keep U.S. Arctic 
operations running. It is very fitting that the icebreakers that work 
fine now are not dismantled.
  This legislation prevents the Polar Sea from being scrapped and helps 
us protect the resources we need to serve interests in the Arctic. This 
bill stipulates that we won't scrap our current icebreakers if it is 
more cost-effective to keep them, and it will make sure our icebreakers 
are seaworthy so the crews don't go out on faulty equipment. These 
ships won't go away unless it can be proven that it makes financial 
sense to replace them.
  Last January, the world watched as the Healy icebreaker successfully 
cut through a path in the Arctic Sea to deliver fuel to Nome, AK. The 
Healy is primarily a research vessel but was forced to do the job 
because our two heavy-duty icebreakers were not currently in active 
status; they were being repaired.
  This bill also ensures that the Polar icebreaking fleet will continue 
to be based in Seattle. Refurbishing a large icebreaker, such as the 
Polar Sea, can take roughly 5 years and employ 300 workers. For us, 
this means shipbuilding jobs, it means an impact in keeping smaller 
shipyards in Washington State busy, and it means keeping icebreakers 
that help save places such as Nome, AK, by cutting paths through the 
ice.
  However, that is not the only thing in this legislation that I am 
proud we got a decision on. Our economy in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, 
California, and Hawaii has been threatened by hundreds of thousands of 
tons of debris washing ashore as a result of the tragic tsunami in 
Japan nearly 2 years ago.
  That is why this legislation asks NOAA to take a closer look at 
tsunami debris and makes sure we are putting an accurate assessment in 
place to protect the west coast. If NOAA decides tsunami debris is a 
severe marine debris event, then they will need to present a specific 
coordination plan developed to meet that threat. And they will need to 
work with local governments, counties, and tribes to ensure there is a 
coordinated effort to protect our economy and environment from tsunami 
debris. In the Northwest we have already seen ships, docks, and various 
other forms of debris float ashore. Oftentimes, our local communities 
have had to pay more than their share of the burden and expense of 
cleaning up the tsunami debris.
  With over 165,000 jobs and nearly $11 billion in our coastal economy 
from fishing, to tourism, to various activities, we want to make sure 
that tsunami debris does not hurt our coastal economies. All we need to 
do is ask the mayor of Long Beach, who said, ``An uncoordinated or 
unmanaged response to this debris event is a blow that Long Beach and 
the Columbia-Pacific region cannot endure.'' This is about getting a 
plan in place for local communities to coordinate, to have 
opportunities to work together, and to remove debris as cost-
effectively as possible.
  Third, this legislation has important language protecting Washington 
waterways in very precious parts of the Pacific Northwest. Recently, 
Canada announced that over the next decade they would double the 
production of the Alberta tar sands oilfields. Today, fifteen billion 
gallons of oil is already shipped through Washington waters. A spill in 
a heavily populated area, around the San Juan Islands or in the waters 
of the Strait of Juan de Fuca could cause billions of dollars of damage 
and harm businesses throughout the region. The response cannot be, 
especially if the spill occurs in Canadian waters, don't worry, just 
call the Americans.
  I am proud this legislation looks at the potential threat caused by 
supertankers and whether they are equipped to respond to a spill that 
could occur from corrosive tar sand oil. Thanks to this legislation, 
the Coast Guard will have to prepare a study that will analyze how much 
vessel traffic will increase in the region due to the proposed increase 
in tar sands oil production and transportation, whether the movement of 
tar sands oil would require navigating through our fragile waters, it 
would look at the oil spill response plans and response capability in 
the U.S. and Canada's shared waters, identify the tools needed to clean 
up this kind of an oil spill and estimate the cost and benefits to the 
American public of moving this oil through our waterways. And, this 
assessment has to be completed in 180 days.
  I want to make sure our fishing fleets, our restaurants, our resort 
economy, and everything that is so important to us in the Northwest, is 
protected.
  This legislation is good news for coastal communities, for jobs in 
Washington State and across our country, and I wish to thank both the 
chair and the ranking member of the subcommittee and full committee for 
making sure we have given the Coast Guard the resources it needs to 
protect our economy, keep our public safe, and protect our environment. 
We have much more work to do, but in a Congress that is down to its 
waning days, it is important that this legislation has seen action and 
is on its way to the President's desk.
  I thank the President, and I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alabama.

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