Move to new department could shift Coast Guard’s priorities

Several agencies affected by the proposal to create a Department of Homeland Security face a critical question: How do you maintain a high level of attention to non-homeland security functions?

Front and center in this debate is the Coast Guard. Eleven different agencies, departments and councils count on the Coast Guard to help with various tasks. These include maritime law enforcement, drug interdiction, immigration and customs work. As the fifth branch of the armed services, the Coast Guard works closely with the Navy and the Defense Department. It also helps the Environmental Protection Agency enforce the 1990 Oil Pollution Act and respond to spills.

In its proposal to create a Department of Homeland Security, the Bush administration pledged that non-homeland security functions will not be affected. "For instance, through FEMA, [the new department] would be responsible for mitigating the effects of natural disasters. Through the Coast Guard, [the department] would be responsible for search and rescue and other maritime functions. Several other border functions, such as drug interdiction operations and naturalization, would also be performed by the new department."

Some congressional aides are concerned, however, that these functions will get short shrift in a department whose primary focus is defending the country against terrorist attack. "The emphasis is clearly going to be on homeland security," says a Senate staffer of a committee that oversees the Coast Guard. "What happens when the department is allocating resources and environmental protection comes up against a homeland security need? We want assurances that these other missions are not going to be overlooked."

Coast Guard officials said the debate is nothing new. Whether housed in the Transportation Department or elsewhere, the agency has always had to meet multiple missions with finite resources.

"The Coast Guard will maintain its integrity and focus on other missions," said Cmdr. Mark Blace. "As our missions have shifted, we have had to reallocate resources to meet those demands."

Taking fixed costs such as salaries, aircraft and ship maintenance, and property out of the equation, the Coast Guard allocated between 1 percent and 2 percent of its resources to port and homeland security before Sept. 11, according to a senior Coast Guard official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Immediately after the terrorist attacks, that number jumped to about 50 percent. It's now down to 25 percent, where Coast Guard officials expect it to remain for the foreseeable future.

What remains up for debate, the official said, is how the proposed department defines homeland security.

"We still don't know what that means. Is it drug intervention? Is it illegal migrant intervention?" he asked. "We don't have the answers yet. That is part of what we are talking about with the homeland security office."