Coast Guard Reauthorization Bill

Floor Speech

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Mr. WICKER. Madam President, I wish to say a word or two about the Coast Guard bill, which is coming up soon. I assure my colleagues that when the leader comes to the Chamber to make leadership remarks, I will certainly defer to him.

I cannot tell you how pleased I am that we are finally getting to the point of passing a Coast Guard Reauthorization Act. We have worked on this for some time--intensely, actually, for 3 years--and I wish to commend Senator Sullivan of Alaska and Senator Thune, the chairman of the Commerce Committee, for doing such great work on this.

The Coast Guard reauthorization bill will allow us to let the Coast Guard continue to do all of the vital things they do to help the people of this Nation. It will allow us to rebuild the fleet, strengthen facilities on shore, and refurbish the aircraft of the Coast Guard, all while ensuring support for the highly trained 40,000 Active-Duty members of the Coast Guard and some 46,000 people who serve in either the Reserve, civilian, or auxiliary force of the Coast Guard.

A lot of Americans really don't have a complete understanding of the 11 statutory functions of the U.S. Coast Guard. I will not go through all of those, except to say that these are vital to the safety and security of the United States. I will just mention that in my own State of Mississippi, after Hurricane Katrina, one of the first groups to come in and respond was the Coast Guard, living up to their motto of Semper Paratus--``Always Ready.'' There were an estimated 60,000 people who needed to be saved from flooded homes, buildings, and rooftops by the Coast Guard, and they did their job. The lifesaving work continued in 2017 and in 2018 with historic rescue and recovery efforts for such disasters as Irma, Florence, Maria, Michael, and the list goes on and on. Simply put, the Coast Guard is there when coastal communities are at risk.

They are also there when it comes to organized crime and drug interdiction--another very important aspect of the Coast Guard. Last week the Coast Guard made news. The cutter Dauntless returned to Pensacola, FL, following a $27 million cocaine bust in the eastern Pacific.

Americans may see the Coast Guard on the news only because of big drug busts or in the aftermath of a hurricane, but these men and women also are in every corner of the globe, protecting our natural resources and our national interests, coordinating search and rescue missions, and saving lives--saving lives every day.

So our hat is off to the Coast Guard, and my hat is off to the leaders of this body who have given us an excellent reauthorization bill.

In a single day, we might see the Coast Guard handling some 45 search and rescue missions in a single day or saving 10 lives in a single day or saving more than $1.2 million in property in a single day or ensuring the proper transport of $8.7 billion in goods and commodities.

As I assured Members when I began these remarks, it is my honor to yield to the distinguished majority leader for whatever leadership remarks he might want to make.

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