Panel backs stronger oversight of Coast Guard fleet upgrade
Bill would effectively end contractor self-certification, which limited the agency's direct control over quality and standards.
Upset over the U.S. Coast Guard's debacle in striving to modernize its fleet, the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on Wednesday reported a bill that would strengthen legislative and the agency's oversight over its troubled Integrated Deepwater Program.
Despite protests by the Coast Guard's newly installed top brass that it had the situation under control, the panel moved the bill (S. 924) to the floor without objection after co-sponsors Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, insisted it was required to ensure that the agency "has the [legal] tools its needs to manage a program of this size and complexity," as Cantwell put it.
The bill effectively terminates the practice of contractor self-certification that critics say removed the Coast Guard from direct control of the quality and standards for its 25-year, $24 billion shipbuilding and modernization program. By permitting the major contractors to certify the design and soundness of the ships, planes and patrol boats being built, the bill's sponsors said, the Coast Guard program managers abdicated their responsibility to make sure the work was done right.
"It is absolutely critical that we get on top of this program," Snowe said. "We can no longer base this process on faith and hope. Oversight was neglected by the Coast Guard, and, as a result, we've lost $500 million and zero [fleet] assets have been placed in service. The record clearly demonstrates that we need legislative intervention."
Major design flaws in the hulls of new patrol boats, as well as structural defects that would limit the service life to five years of large "national security cutters," she said, were not picked up by the Coast Guard because of a failure to ride herd on the contractors.
Cantwell said the bill would put into law the Coast Guard's newly hatched rules to strengthen its management of the program. It would also require a third-party review of Deepwater contracts yet to be issued to assure both the agency and Congress that the same mistakes would not recur. And it would require the agency to report back to Congress before awarding new contracts for the program.
The only question about the legislation was raised by Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., who maintained that the Coast Guard's new leader, Commandant Thad Allen, had already installed most of the steps embodied in the legislation and should be given the opportunity to make them work before Congress intervened.
"We're undermining the admiral and could delay getting the ships and planes we need [to modernize the fleet]," Lott said. "We're going to have an inordinate delay [in continuing the program by calling for layers of review of new contracts]."
After some back-and-forth with Cantwell, Lott agreed to withhold an amendment he had prepared to strip the contract-review language from the bill, after Cantwell pledged to consult with him about the issue before the bill went to the Senate floor.