Duncan Hunter: “So, right now, the very first ship, the Dependable, should have been decommissioned in 2011.”

I have ongoing concerns with the Coast Guard being an armed service within the Department of Homeland Security.

The 2013 National Space Transportation Policy calls for the use of U.S. rockets for U.S. government payloads, with some minor exceptions that perhaps should be revisited anyway.

But the catch-22 is that if the Coast Guard did some of these things, they would have more people to do other things.

But don't spend $18 billion that way. Spend it where it has the most effect, which is the U.S. Coast Guard.