Transportation chairman concedes on Coast Guard move

One of the most vocal critics of plans for a new federal Homeland Security Department conceded Tuesday that he could not stop the proposed inclusion of the Coast Guard.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska, said he still opposes moving the Coast Guard out of the Transportation Department, but indicated in an interview that he is being a realist.

Instead, Young hopes to safeguard thousands of miles of Alaska coastline and his constituents by making search-and-rescue, fisheries protection and other core missions a priority over homeland security tasks.

When Young's committee meets Thursday to mark up its portion of the security bill, it will consider mission statements for the Coast Guard and three other organizations under its jurisdiction.

Young's panel is one of 12 committees that have until Friday to send their recommendations to an ad hoc committee chaired by House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas.

"When the president and the leadership say that's going to happen, we have to do what we can do," Young said. "We at least write the mission. Rescuing somebody on the high seas is homeland security."

Young also wants to make the Coast Guard report directly to a Cabinet-level secretary or undersecretary.

Young's opposition to moving the Coast Guard has been well-publicized, but mostly solitary, since President Bush proposed the new homeland security agency last month.

Many lawmakers share Young's concerns that the Coast Guard's search-and-rescue, fisheries protection and other missions not get pushed aside by security tasks, yet they remain open to the move. Some think a move could even be a good idea--a way to get the long-shortchanged Coast Guard the money and respect it deserves.

"I am inclined to favor the Coast Guard being a part of the homeland security operation," said Transportation and Infrastructure member Howard Coble, R-N.C. "They have such a low priority in Transportation.... This would conceivably place them on a higher threshold. They would do better at the bargaining table when it comes to divvying out money."

Reaction in the fishing and boating industry has been largely neutral.

"Most of the industry is not going to care about that bureaucratic wrangling," said Justin LeBlanc, vice president of government relations at the National Fisheries Institute, a trade organization of about 40 regional commercial fishermen's organizations around the country.

The Coast Guard's aging fleet and inadequate communications systems will probably see a "renaissance" in the new security department, says Michael Sciulla, vice president of BoatU.S., which represents recreational boaters.

"All of that hardware is going to translate into improved search-and-rescue for the Coast Guard," Sciulla says.

He is concerned, however, that safety tasks like inspections, boat defect programs and education will be overlooked.

The new Homeland Security Department will get about half of its staff and budget from four organizations under the jurisdiction of the 75-member Transportation panel, Young said.

In addition to the Coast Guard, they are the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Federal Protective Service and the Transportation Security Administration, which was created in the aftermath of Sept. 11.

Young said he no control over Armey's committee but is still going to put up a fight.

"We have to put our best effort forward and stand together when the ad hoc committee gives its final disposition," Young says. "The mission definition is crucial."