During a House Appropriations Committee hearing last week, Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-IL) spoke about a budget request of $50 million to acquire a plane for DHS Secretary Kristi Noem's travels.
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00:00...recognizes the gentlelady from Illinois for her questions. The floor is
00:04yours. Thank you. Admiral, thank you for being here today. We know the Coast Guard
00:08does an incredible job with what you have, but also remains chronically
00:11under-resourced. The Coast Guard does life-saving work to respond to maritime
00:15disasters, combat the flow of illegal drugs, counter China, and prevent cyber
00:19attacks. I strongly support large increases to your budget, probably even
00:24larger than you requested in some areas, but I'm concerned that this
00:27administration's political goals are shifting those limited resources away
00:31from strategic theaters where bad actors are aggressively testing American
00:34resolve. In your written testimony, you stated that the Coast Guard is, quote,
00:38surging operational forces to the U.S.-Mexico border and the Gulf of Mexico.
00:43So my question for you is, where specifically are those forces and
00:46resources to support them coming from? What theaters and missions were they
00:50assigned to before this surge? How many deportation flights has the Coast Guard
00:55flown, and why is that the best use of the aviation assets?
01:00Ranking Member Underwood, thanks for your questions and your support.
01:04So first, to answer your question about the alien expulsion operation flights
01:07to date, since 20 January, the Coast Guard has flown 157 of those flights in
01:13support of other Department of Homeland Security components for southern border
01:17security operations. As to the other operations where we have surged assets to
01:23the southern border. And for us, the southern border also includes the border
01:26approaching Florida and our territories in the Caribbean. That's part of the
01:29southern border for us as well. And so we took planned operations from some other
01:34areas and into consultation, principally supporting combatant commanders. I
01:38consulted with those combatant commanders and the Department of Defense and briefed
01:42the Secretary on my plans to temporarily change some of those planned
01:44deployments. This type of decision is not unprecedented and we make those tough
01:49trade-offs all the time because there's an increasing demand for Coast Guard
01:53resources and always a limited number of cutters, boats, aircraft and crews to
01:57provide them. And so that's part of the risk decision that I make in
02:01consultation with our area commanders. Have any personnel vessels, air assets or
02:05other resources been pulled from the Coast Guard's Arctic strategy to
02:09accommodate the southern border surge? No, Ranking Member Underwood, they have not.
02:14What about your Indo-Pacific mission? Did you reduce lift capacity in the region
02:18in favor of more deportation flights here? And are we going to be slower in
02:22building our presence there as a result of the surge? Ranking Member Underwood, there
02:25were two operational deployments that I changed, I directed be changed, through
02:30that process I described before. And I want to be specific about that. One was a
02:34planned patrol working for Indo-Pacific Command, one of our national security
02:38cutters, and I consulted with Admiral Paparo about that before making that change. But
02:42there's been no change in our permanent presence in the Indo-Pacific. The other
02:47change in the Atlantic, you asked about the Arctic. We had the Cutter Calhoun,
02:51another national security cutter that was scheduled to support a port visit for a
02:55senior leader meeting of the Arctic Coast Guard Forum in Iceland, and we canceled
02:59that planned meeting. It wasn't an operational meeting. And so that was related to
03:04the Arctic, but I wanted to be specific and clear in my answer. And what about the
03:07Great Lakes, where the Coast Guard plays a critical role in commerce and safety for the
03:11community I represent? Has there been any change to the staffing plans for the Great
03:16Lakes region? There have not been changes to that staffing plan. Our presence in the
03:20Great Lakes remain as important as always, which includes our domestic ice breaking
03:25presence there. Excellent. In your testimony, you also wrote that you are tripling the
03:29number of forward deployed air and surface assets at the southern border and
03:32simultaneously seeking total operational control of the region. It's clear
03:36strategic trade-offs are being made and I'm concerned about the impact on your
03:40other missions. The Coast Guard desperately needs more funding to meet
03:44its mission and the passage of a reconciliation bill is far from
03:46guaranteed at this time. And Coasties, like most Americans, are struggling with
03:50the rising cost of living. I speak frequently with young guardsmen and women who
03:54struggle to afford housing and access medical care, which is why I was horrified
03:58last Friday when we received a last-minute addition to your spend plan for
04:01fiscal 25. A new 50 million dollar Gulf Stream 5 for Secretary Noem's personal
04:06travel coming from the Coast Guard budget. She already has a Gulf Stream 5 by the
04:10way. This is a new one. And so Admiral, I have just one question for you here. Have
04:14you received any outreach requests or any other communication from anyone above you
04:18at DHS or any political appointee in the Trump administration regarding a new
04:23plane for the Secretary?
04:24Ranking Member Underwood, so first of all, thank you for the support of the
04:29committee and the continuing resolution for 25. And as part of that spend plan to
04:34address the needs of our service members and their families, we were able to
04:37provide that cover of the pay raise for military and civilian personnel, including
04:41a targeted pay raise for our junior enlisted personnel, which was essential. You
04:45had asked about the military command and control aircraft. So first of all, meeting
04:50the needs of our Coast Guard men and women that are doing frontline operations is my top
04:53operational priority and it's a top operational priority of the Secretary.
04:57She's been clear with that to me and I know she testified to that effect before
05:01the subcommittee last week. The Coast Guard, like the other military services,
05:05operates two military long-range command and control aircraft. This is part of our
05:10military operational fleet of aircraft. These are C-37 variants. The older one is a
05:16C-37 Alpha variant. And like a lot of the rest of our operational aviation fleet and
05:22our cutters and our boats and our shore facilities, it's old and it's approaching
05:27obsolescence and the end of its service life. The avionics are increasingly obsolete.
05:32The communications are increasingly unreliable and it's a need of
05:36recapitalization like much of the rest of the fleet. But this aircraft is
05:40necessary to provide the Secretary, the Deputy Secretary, me as the Acting Commandant,
05:45the Acting Vice, and our two area commanders with secure reliable on-demand
05:48communications and movement to go forward, visit our Operating Forces conducting the missions,
05:54and then come back here to Washington to make sure we can work together to get them what they need.
05:58Mr. Chairman, my time's expired. I just want to note that I didn't hear the Admiral
06:02answer the question about whether he was directed to purchase this new Gulf Stream 5. And I just want
06:08to note that as I conclude my time. Thank you. I yield back.
06:10The chair recognizes Mr. Rutherford for five minutes for his questions.
06:16Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ranking Member.