Building a U.S. Coast Guard for the 21st Century - Center for ...

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Personnel challenges Since the beginning of the U.S.-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Pentagon has expanded the Army and the Marine Corps, the services most utilized in both conflicts, by more than 100,000 men and women. 20 This significant increase was designed to ease the stress on the ground forces, which were routinely experiencing repeated deployments without receiving the minimum time at home to rest, recuperate, and retrain as proscribed by the Pentagon’s own regulations. Over the same period, the Coast Guard’s active-duty component grew from about 42,600 active-duty military and full-time civilian personnel in fiscal year 2001 to nearly 52,000 active-duty military and full-time civilian personnel for FY2011. This increase did not extend, however, to the Coast Guard’s auxiliary and military selected reserve force levels, which on average remained relatively stagnant over the same period. 21 More importantly, as will be discussed in the following pages, anecdotal evidence as well as GAO analysis suggest that the increase has not been nearly enough to support the USCG’s missions, which have been significantly expanded since 2001. As a result, the Coast Guard has struggled to fulfill both homeland security and non-homeland-security missions over the past decade. Adm. Allen alluded to this manpower deficiency in his 2008 testimony before the House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security. The then-commandant remarked that “the spectrum of threats, hazards, [and] challenges we face continues to grow on all fronts and increases our demand for services.” He pointed to the USCG’s greatest internal challenge as “a bona fide capacity shortage.” 22 As noted above, DHS’s FY 2011 budget request will reduce Coast Guard end strength below 49,000. 23 If the Coast Guard is to continue to serve as an effective complement to U.S. security operations overseas; perform its traditional maritime transportation, environmental, and safety missions; and prepare its force for the impact of future threats 17 Center for American Progress | Building a U.S. Coast Guard for the 21st Century
such as those posed by climate change, then increasing or at the least maintaining Coast Guard personnel levels must be a priority in the near term (see chart). U.S. Coast Guard full-time permanent employees 60,000 50,000 40,000 30,000 20,000 10,000 0 Source: U.S. Coast Guard 42,590 42,997 44,332 46,021 47,866 48,787 49,398 50,492 51,397 51,714 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Military full-time permanent employees Civilian full-time permanent employees Personnel levels and performance The Coast Guard in 2001 began to experience a series of personnel shortages in its traditional operations and key homeland security missions, as well as ongoing issues with maintaining adequately trained personnel. Coast Guard leadership must ensure that the service recruits and maintains the appropriate level of personnel to meet its statutory mission needs without lowering its quality standards. The history of USCG civilian and uniformed personnel shortages covers the breadth of the service’s missions. Steve Caldwell, director of maritime security issues for GAO, noted in 2008 that the GAO “looked at acquisition, domestic facilities inspections, the overseas port inspections that the Coast Guard does… Every one of those areas we found that there were problems with not enough staff to do the work.” 24 In 2006, for example, one year before the Coast Guard reclaimed control of the Deepwater acquisition program from private contractor Integrated Coast Guard Systems, the DHS inspector general noted that the Coast Guard did not have adequate staff reviewing contractor information technology systems work for the program. The IG was told the Coast Guard did not have enough personnel to consistently review information technology systems plans within the 30 days allotted by the contractors. 18 Center for American Progress | Building a U.S. Coast Guard for the 21st Century Increasing or at the least maintaining Coast Guard personnel levels must be a priority in the near term.
Page 1 and 2: AP Photo/U.S. CoASt GUArd, Petty of
Page 3 and 4: Contents 1 Introduction and summary
Page 5 and 6: As a result of an already constrain
Page 7 and 8: In order to modernize to confront 2
Page 9 and 10: • Consider placing the Coast Guar
Page 11 and 12: According to the Government Account
Page 13 and 14: This sentiment is shared at the mos
Page 15 and 16: Coast Guard aircraft assets The Coa
Page 17 and 18: The Coast Guard is quick to note th
Page 19: Evaluate whether to keep legacy ass
Page 23 and 24: In 2008, the most recent year for w
Page 25 and 26: Given that the Coast Guard is imple
Page 27 and 28: Defense readiness reporting As one
Page 29 and 30: These ratings should be understood
Page 31 and 32: Instead, it limits the perspectives
Page 33 and 34: As Commandant Allen’s term came t
Page 35 and 36: From the project’s outset, the se
Page 37 and 38: ing low-rate initial production and
Page 39 and 40: schedules of major defense acquisit
Page 41 and 42: Institute a “fly before you buy
Page 43 and 44: Moreover, GAO reports that the Coas
Page 45 and 46: Recommendations The Coast Guard mus
Page 47 and 48: Preparing for climate change’s ch
Page 49 and 50: about their desire to pursue nation
Page 51 and 52: given responsibility for the entire
Page 53 and 54: Conclusion The Coast Guard is, alwa
Page 55 and 56: 29 Government Accountability office
Page 57 and 58: About the authors Lawrence J. Korb

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