CRs May Limit Coast Guard’s Effort to Maintain and Rebuild Fleet

Though the Coast Guard is prepared for continuing resolutions, another month under one will hurt, according to Commandant Adm. Paul Zukunft.

“What we really need is a final appropriation,” Zukunft said in an exclusive interview with Federal News Radio on Jan. 10. Without one, the sea service’s maintenance of U.S. waterways will erode.

“This is a fleet of very old inland construction tenders that maintain our inland waterways. If you can think of our interstate system, the signage, the asphalt, all of the work, that’s basically what we do on the waterways. [The waterways] move $4.6 trillion worth of commodities, jobs and opportunities as well,” Zukunft told Federal News Radio.

Lack of final Fiscal Year 2018 funding also will affect the Coast Guard’s plans to buy drones, perform research and development and acquire new icebreaking vessels, Zukunft said.

Read more at Federal News Radio

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