Washington, D.C. — The following are opening remarks, as prepared for delivery, from Ranking Member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Rick Larsen (D-WA) and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Salud Carbajal (D-CA) during today’s hearing titled, “Implementation of the Recommendations of the Accountability and Transparency Review and Efforts to Ease Coast Guard Manpower Shortages.”
Video of Larsen and Carbajal’s opening statements can be found here and here.
More information on the hearing can be found here.
Ranking Member Larsen:
Thank you, Chairman Webster and Ranking Member Carbajal, for holding this hearing.
The decision by former Coast Guard leadership to conceal the existence of Operation Fouled Anchor (OFA) hurt the Coast Guard, its reputation, and the Coasties serving our country.
Former Coast Guard leadership chose not to inform Congress of OFA and then hid the findings and recommendations from the public and other Coasties. Had the findings and recommendations from OFA been acted upon in 2018, the Coast Guard could have already implemented meaningful reforms.
Instead, the Coast Guard’s actions sowed distrust among its workforce. I want to hear today from the Deputy Commandant on how the Service plans to rebuild trust and ensure its workforce is supported in the future.
Culture change can create a more tolerant, accepting, and supportive workforce and one that is better prepared to complete its mission.
With an estimated shortage of roughly 4,800 members, the Coast Guard has both a moral and a functional need to implement culture change, so women and men want to join and stay in the Service.
While culture change is ultimately about changing the behavior of people, getting there is going to require significant resources.
For instance, the Coast Guard recently started an Integrated Primary Prevention Program to help prevent suicide, sexual assault, harassment, domestic abuse, and child abuse through community engagement, policy, programs, and improved practices. However, this Coast Guard program is staffed by one person, while the Department of Defense has over 1,000 staff for a similar program.
Ranking Member Carbajal and I sent a letter to the Appropriations Committee last month urging the inclusion of an additional $21.8 million for the Integrated Primary Prevention Program in the final FY24 funding bill. If included, that funding would enable the Coast Guard to immediately begin hiring new civilian employees.
In addition, the Service needs funding for improvements to human resources information technology, improvements to governance and oversight at the Coast Guard Academy, enhanced training and professional development for the workforce, and more robust and sustained support for victims.
While the Coast Guard deserves criticism and increased oversight for its handling of sexual assault and sexual harassment, I believe that, under the leadership of Admiral Fagan, the Service is now on the right path. The Coast Guard therefore deserves the support of Congress in addressing this issue.
The Coast Guard is facing a budget shortfall that includes a $3 billion shoreside infrastructure backlog and ballooning costs associated with the construction of Polar Security Cutters. Especially when it comes to sexual assault and sexual harassment, we cannot ask the Coast Guard to do more with less.
The Coast Guard is a $20 billion Service operating on a $13 billion budget and those who serve in the Coast Guard deserve better.
They deserve dorm rooms that are free of asbestos. They deserve access to affordable housing and childcare. They deserve workplaces and technology that assist rather than hinder their mission.
And, above all, they deserve a work environment free from sexual assault and harassment.
I hope my colleagues will join me in making the case for increased funding for the Coast Guard to address these and other issues.
Thank you, and I yield back.
Ranking Member Carbajal:
Thank you, Chair Webster, for calling today’s hearing. The issues we’re examining today are paramount to the success of the Coast Guard.
Over the past three years, I’ve had the opportunity to visit Coast Guard stations across the country. I’ve been on icebreakers, National Security Cutters, Fast Response Cutters, various aircraft, and small boats.
While I enjoy seeing Coast Guard assets, I leave every visit struck by the professionalism of Coasties. I’m sure that anyone who has a chance to interact with members of the Coast Guard feels the same.
Unfortunately, we’re here today to talk about the small minority in the Coast Guard whose actions have affected morale, safety, recruiting, and retention in the Service.
As a veteran, I know firsthand the importance of morale in the military. Those choosing to serve our country sacrifice so much and they deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. Perpetrators of sexual assault and sexual harassment and the command leaders who permit those actions must be held accountable. I look forward to hearing from our witness today on how the Coast Guard plans to do that.
It is unacceptable that the Coast Guard decided to hide Operation Fouled Anchor. This Subcommittee conducts oversight of the Coast Guard, and we should have been told. I look forward to hearing today about the systems you’ve put in place to ensure this never happens again—regardless of who is leading the Service.
More importantly though, those involved with burying the findings and recommendations are responsible for five years of inaction from the Service. I want to be clear—if the former leadership had treated this issue with the seriousness it deserves, the seriousness in which Admiral Fagan is addressing the issue, incidents of sexual assault and sexual harassment would have been prevented. Instead, the former leadership appears to have prioritized the reputation of the Coast Guard over Coasties. That cannot happen again.
I would like to applaud the actions taken by Admiral Fagan since learning of Operation Fouled Anchor. The directed actions in the Accountability and Transparency Review are comprehensive and serve as a good starting point to affecting culture change and eradicating this behavior from the service.
I am, however, concerned that the Coast Guard is able and willing to make the long-term commitment necessary to affect real change. Leadership at the Coast Guard is constantly changing so future leaders must continue what Admiral Fagan has started.
I look forward to hearing from the GAO today on structural impediments in the Coast Guard. Implementation of reforms must be tracked, measured, and adjusted as necessary. Without the appropriate IT infrastructure, this will be difficult.
And that leads me to my last concern—funding. Many of the directed actions in the ATR will require funding. Congress must provide the appropriate funding to ensure a shift in culture within the Coast Guard. Recruitment and retention and the success of every mission depend on it.
Thank you, and I yield back.
--30--