Panel backs restoration of funds for Coast Guard upgrade

The House Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday unanimously approved an amended version of the Coast Guard authorization bill, increasing authorization for the big Deepwater acquisition program and requiring additional steps to secure liquefied natural gas facilities.

Acting with bipartisan efficiency, the panel adopted a substitute amendment to the authorization approved June 20 by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The modifications dealt with homeland security provisions beyond the Coast Guard.

House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and ranking member Peter King, R-N.Y., backed the amendments to authorize an additional $229 million to Coast Guard acquisition and to restore the Deepwater procurement authorization to fiscal 2007 levels.

The bill also would tighten the management of the program, barring the contractor team of Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman from acting as lead systems integrator and requiring a career civilian to fill the new position of Coast Guard chief acquisition officer.

It also would require the Homeland Security Department to report on the cost growth of the National Security Cutters, mandate certification of the cutters' design by the American Bureau of Shipping and authorize the Coast Guard to use the Navy's shipbuilding and communication systems experts in developing Deepwater projects.

The authorization increase might be meaningless because the House-passed Homeland Security appropriations bill cut Deepwater funding $367.5 million below the fiscal 2007 level because of the problems with several major programs.

The Homeland Security amendments authorized a second Coast Guard Maritime Security Response Team to extend the "SWAT team" capability to the Pacific coast that the first team provides on the Atlantic coast.

Another thrust of the amendments is to require the Homeland Security secretary to conduct a comprehensive security review before authorizing a new liquefied natural gas facility, and requiring the Coast Guard to perform a "comparative risk assessment" for any proposed LNG ship- or shore-based re-gasification process.

The amendments also require department reports on the progress toward implementing the Transportation Worker Identification Card program and a Government Accountability Office study of any state ID programs that duplicate the TWIC background records check.

Other provisions include requirements for cruise ships to report missing persons or violent incidents on their vessels. The bill would also authorize pilot programs in Seattle and San Diego to test radiological and nuclear detection equipment on Coast Guard vessels and authorize the Homeland Security secretary to establish a strategic plan for assisting foreign ports that do not maintain effective anti-terrorism measures.