In approving the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2024 (H.R. 7659), the House recently authorized funding for the service’s operations and recapitalization efforts in 2025 and 2026, among other measures.
“The men and women of the Coast Guard deserve the support of this Congress in their efforts to meet the challenges of their ever-growing mission set,” Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-MO), one of the introducers of the legislation, said after its passage. “Those missions are wide-ranging and include ensuring the safety of maritime trade and a critical part of our supply chain, enforcing U.S. laws at sea, protecting our nation’s borders, helping counter undue Chinese influence in the Pacific, helping to develop the United States’ redefined role in the rapidly changing Arctic, and countering human trafficking and the influx of illicit drugs into the country. This bill provides the Coast Guard with the authorities and resources it needs to carry out these many critical missions.”
Graves was joined in this effort by a bipartisan collective that included T&I Committee Ranking Member Rick Larsen (D-WA), Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee Chairman Daniel Webster (R-FL), and Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee Ranking Member Salud Carbajal (D-CA). In pushing it forward, all sought a way to further border security, guarantee maritime safety, aid commerce, increase transparency, target drug and illegal migrant operations, confront Chinese expansion in the Pacific and strengthen sexual assault and harassment protections for Coast Guard members.
Some notable inclusions in this year’s bill included allotments for the cutter fleet, shoreside facilities and IT capabilities. In all, the Coast Guard would be authorized to gain two Fast Response Cutters (FRCs), two Offshore Patrol Cutters (OPCs), a Polar Security Cutter (PSC), two missionized HC-130J aircraft and MH-60T Jayhawk aircraft. Recruiting was also a focus, and so were amendments to the requirements for merchant mariner credentials.
“Passing our bipartisan bill in the House today is an important step toward ensuring the United States Coast Guard has the resources it needs to take care of its servicemembers, carry out its mission and safeguard the nation at sea,” Larsen said. “The bipartisan Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2024 improves the lives of servicemembers by authorizing investment in facilities and tackling the Service’s shoreside infrastructure backlog. Critically, it also fights sexual violence by holding the Coast Guard accountable for its sexual assault and harassment mitigation and prevention efforts.”
If signed into law, the bill would introduce increased standards of accountability to the service, and require an annual report to Congress for three years, outlining the Coast Guard’s efforts. The inclusion of extra sexual assault and harassment provisions stemmed from the service’s own Accountability and Transparency Review.