Political Quotes

“The provisions of Section 888 were drafted to preserve the traditional roles and missions of the Coast Guard and ensure they are not altered or diminished. Since September 11, 2001, the Coast Guard has taken on additional homeland security responsibilities resulting in its largest peacetime port security operation since World War II. While our new reality requires the Coast Guard to maintain a robust homeland security posture, these new priorities must not diminish the Coast Guard's focus on its other traditional missions such as marine safety, search and rescue, aids to navigation, fisheries law enforcement, and marine environmental protection. As a Senator from a coastal State, and as the ranking member on the Oceans, Atmosphere, and Fisheries Subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee, I can attest that all these missions are critically important and that the American people rely on the Coast Guard to perform them each and every day. The language in Section 888, which I developed with Senators Stevens and Collins, strikes the proper balance and ensures the Coast Guard's non-homeland security missions will not be compromised or decreased in any substantial or significant way by the transfer to the new Department of Homeland Security.”