James Traficant: “the bill has a provision in it which in effect terminates and closes 23 multi-mission small boat stations. No one has…”

“the bill has a provision in it which in effect terminates and closes 23 multi-mission small boat stations. No one has greater respect for the chairman of this committee, the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Shuster], than myself and the gentleman from North Carolina [Mr. Coble]. I think this is the one element of the bill that we should change on the floor. You have a number of amendments that are going to follow this and try and put some gingerbread and criteria on this closing. But in essence the Coast Guard has already determined they shall be closed, and all we are doing here is political window dressing. The decision today is do we close 23 stations and save $3 million, roll the dice, or do we in fact say as a policy our mission is safety, not dollars, and the last time the Congress of the United States allowed bases to be closed, five people lost their lives off the shore of Oregon. Now, you hear all about these big high class helicopters and all these radar evading planes. Quite frankly, I do not buy it. When there are winds of 65 miles per hour and someone is out at sea, they are not going to be seeing no big chopper come in for them. You know it and I know it.…”