A bipartisan pair of lawmakers is circulating a letter among their House colleagues urging appropriators to reject the portion of Trump’s budget that would cut more than $1 billion from the Coast Guard in fiscal 2018.
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., and Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., are leading the effort, which defends the role the Coast Guard has in keeping the nation safe and says the drastic cut to funding levels is a “cause for serious alarm.” They’re the top members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure’s Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee.
“Our recommendation is that OMB’s financial outline, specific to the Coast Guard, be rejected on the grounds that, if implemented, it would serve to the detriment of U.S. national security and create exposures that will most certainly be exploited by transnational criminal networks and other dangerous actors,” the lawmakers write in a draft of the letter obtained by the Washington Examiner.
The letter will be sent to House appropriators, who have the final say on fiscal 2018 budget levels despite any blueprint from the White House.
The lawmakers in the letter actually call for a boost to the Coast Guard’s budget in fiscal 2018, reasoning that Trump’s efforts to secure the country’s southern land border will likely drive the flow of drugs and immigrants to sea, making the service’s mission even more important.
Hunter sent a letter to Trump on Thursday saying that the proposed $1.3 billion in cuts to the Coast Guard’s budget are directly at odds with his promise to rebuild the military.
The budget blueprint also includes the cancellation of a “roughly $500 million new ship,” which is likely the ninth national security cutter built by Huntington Ingalls Industries, Hunter wrote.
