Lawmakers aim to keep Coast Guard R&D within agency

Although House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee members failed to retain a piece of their turf by keeping the Coast Guard's research and development program within the agency, the lawmakers have received support for adding language on the issue during House-Senate talks on a bill to fund the Homeland Security Department in fiscal 2005.

Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky., gave GOP Reps. Frank LoBiondo of New Jersey and Rob Simmons of Connecticut a "verbal agreement" to address their concerns in an amendment they unsuccessfully offered during Thursday's debate on the appropriations measure, according to spokeswomen for Rogers and Simmons.

"Any transfer of funding and oversight responsibility such as the one proposed and included in this bill not only violates [the Homeland Security Act] but jeopardizes the integrity and the functional capabilities of the service," said LoBiondo, who chairs the Coast Guard and Maritime Subcommittee.

LoBiondo said the issue reaches back to the jurisdictional clash two years ago when Congress created Homeland Security and transferred 22 agencies, including the Coast Guard, to the department. "When we were debating the [bill] and talking about the Coast Guard being included, it was only after assurances and guarantees that the Coast Guard would in fact be kept intact that we agreed that we would sign off on the transfer," he said.

The fights have continued to percolate since the department's inception, and Transportation and Infrastructure panel members, led by Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska, are keeping close watch on their turf.

Young repeatedly has said it was a "mistake" to create the department and insists his committee should authorize funding for all non-homeland security accounts to ensure that the Coast Guard has adequate resources for its traditional missions, such as maritime safety and drug interdiction.

"I am concerned that the transfer of research and development funds to the department will be the first step down a slippery slope that will forever change the Coast Guard's abilities to balance its resources and personnel to carry out its many and varied missions," he said.

The Simmons-LoBiondo amendment presumably would have support in conference negotiations because Young's Alaska Republican colleague, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, has said he opposes transferring the Coast Guard's R&D activities.

The amendment, which was rejected before lawmakers could negotiate with Rogers to support it on the House floor, would take $18.5 million -- the amount in a bill to authorize Coast Guard programs in fiscal 2005 -- out of the science and technology division and place it in the Coast Guard's account. The authorization measure is awaiting conference negotiations with the Senate.

Rogers said during the debate that he promised to work on the issue if the reauthorization bill retains R&D funding within the Coast Guard.