{"id":27586,"date":"2024-05-30T13:24:04","date_gmt":"2024-05-30T13:24:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/uncategorized\/2024\/05\/30\/coast-guard-response-to-key-bridge-collapse-reveals-a-strained-service\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T05:18:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T05:18:59","slug":"coast-guard-response-to-key-bridge-collapse-reveals-a-strained-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/congress\/2024\/05\/30\/coast-guard-response-to-key-bridge-collapse-reveals-a-strained-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Coast Guard response to Key Bridge collapse reveals a strained service"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When a Singapore-flagged container ship struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge<\/a> in Maryland in the early hours of March 26, the U.S. Coast Guard became one of several federal entities mobilized to close the Port of Baltimore waterway, initiate search and rescue operations, and begin clearing tons of wreckage and debris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That could not be done without tremendous resources<\/a> from the already lean force that experts say has been underfunded for much of its modern history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the scene were four Coast Guard cutters, 36 barges, 27 tugboats, 22 floating cranes, 10 excavators, one dredger, one skimmer and at least 10 more maritime platforms. And required are the individuals who operate these vessels and tools, including 27 Coast Guard civilians, 275 active duty service members, 82 reservists and 23 volunteers, said Nick Ameen, a spokesperson for the joint information center responding to the crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These employees were drawn from their home stations all over the country, including some as far as Alaska and California. That also means these stations are donating staff to the recovery effort in Maryland, but the Coast Guard doesn\u2019t have much to spare as it is, the service\u2019s operations lead said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an immediate-area impact to readiness, certainly, but what we know is that for unplanned incidents like this where we mobilize a lot very quickly, there are also readiness impacts that happen well beyond the initial site,\u201d Vice Adm. Peter Gautier, the Coast Guard\u2019s deputy commandant for operations, said during a May 15 hearing on the bridge incident<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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U.S. Coast Guard Vice Adm. Peter Gautier, deputy commandant for operations, attends a hearing on the federal response to the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse on May 15, 2024. (Jacquelyn Martin\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGoing into what\u2019s likely to be a pretty severe hurricane season, I think the main thing here is that in order for the Coast Guard to reconstitute and be ready for the next [emergency], we need to have continued and enduring financial appropriations [from] Congress,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The strain is evidenced in steps the Coast Guard is already taking, including evaluations to flag certain regions for potential consolidation. Other units, including stations in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Tennessee and West Virginia, have been identified for temporary closure of boat operations<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rodrigo Nieto-Gomez, a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, described the Coast Guard as a \u201cSwiss Army knife\u201d given its diverse array of statutory authorities that give it much to do in civilian and military spheres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe regulatory environment that affords them a lot of activities and leniency is … all compiled in a single agency, and they have a very small workforce,\u201d he told Federal Times. \u201cOn a normal day, they operate at that level of capacity. They don\u2019t have any surcharge capacity [for when things get] worse. Now you have something like the bridge incident, and you will be sucking down … a big percentage of resources for that area.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Coast Guard is not even the largest sub-agency housed within the Department of Homeland Security. Its force of 57,000 active duty, reserve and civilian personnel falls below that of Customs and Border Protection<\/a> and the Transportation Security Administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, experts and officials within the service have pointed out the far-reaching and diverse duties it\u2019s charged with:<\/a> drug interdiction, immigration, environmental protection, emergency response, waterway and coastal security, intelligence gathering, and defense. It acts as a law enforcement body, a prong of the military and a regulatory civilian agency. It works over 3.4 million square miles of exclusive economic zones<\/a> and defends a coastline that is longer, by most estimates, than the border between the U.S. and Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the next decade, the Coast Guard will face several challenges: cyberattacks, submersibles in the drug trade, climate change and worsening natural disasters<\/a>, unpredictable international conflict, and personnel shortages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good news, Nieto-Gomez said, is that the service has most of the actual authorities it needs to be able to respond to these emerging dangers \u2014 with some exceptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is a difference between having the statutory authority or having the capability,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\t