A cloud over Washington coast: What will Trump do to the Coast Guard?
SOUTH BEND, Wash. -- The voters of Southwest Washington asked for nothing when they mailed in ballots for Donald Trump last November, and that appears to be exactly what they are going to get.
The region depends on federal dollars for dredging estuaries, ocean acidification research and impacts on shellfish industry, ongoing recovery of salmon runs -- but most of all for protection and rescue services of the U.S. Coast Guard.
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The Trump administration's strategy for these coastal programs appears to be one of slash and drown.
There was much recent alarm when a Trump planning document proposed a 12 percent cut in the Coast Guard budget. But the Coast Guard was not even mentioned when initial budget figures were released last week.
"If we want to protect our borders, they do just that: The Coast Guard saves lives, it saves boaters, it saves surfers. We have one of the most dangerous ocean environments in the world," said Casey Dennehy, Washington Coast project manager with the Surfrider Foundation.
"Living in Westport, they (Coast Guard) are community members. Cutting them would take valuable people from our community. It would result in lives lost."
What happened to the 12 percent cut figure?
"We all started saying, 'What's happening here? Now they've hidden it (the Coast Guard cuts). We are going to work hard to solve this mystery," said U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who will face Coast Guard brass at a hearing later this week.
State Rep. Brian Blake, whose district includes Ilwaco and Chinook, said: "I can't believe Congress would follow up on cuts to the Coast Guard.
The worry goes far beyond the Coast Guard. The Trump administration has proposed total elimination of the Sea Grant program, used by 30 universities (none more than the University of Washington) for ocean-related work. Proposed cutbacks to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will impact numerous programs important to the Coast.
"It is not only the Coast Guard, it is other things: Pacific salmon money, taken out of the NOAA budget, would cost me half my staff: We have been working 30 years here to restore fish runs," said Mike Nordin of the Pacific and Grays Harbor Conservation Districts.
Buoys are an essential element of life on the coast, from predicting storms to providing direction to boaters, to measuring ocean acidification. "Take the bouys out? They keep the people here alive," Nordin added.
U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Wash., who represents the northern part of the Olympic Peninsula, noted bluntly: "This is a region where jobs are tied to the water." An example: 3,200 jobs are tied to shellfish growing. "It's an industry that depends on clean water," Kilmer said.
Kilmer is in a bipartisan group of House members writing a letter to Trump explaining the folly of some proposed cuts. U.S. Rep. Dave Riechert, R-Wash., is reportedly on board.
The Coast Guard cuts have a national security component -- a big one.
The U.S. has only one heavy duty icebreaker, the Polar Star, which just returned from Antarctica. Russia has a fleet with more under construction.
Cantwell and Alaska's Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, two adults in Congress', have fought and won authorization to begin planning at least one additional icebreaker. "Now we have to get some money," said Cantwell in an interview here.
The Arctic icepack is shrinking due to the global warming that Trump has ignorantly called "a hoax." Shipping routes through northern waters are opening. Economic opportunities are opening as well.
"It impacts us," said Cantwell, on the lack of an incebreaker. "If we have no capacity, it is like having a highway through your country and having nothing to do with. It is no way to manage the Arctic.
"What happens if a U.S. ship goes through up there, and gets stuck? Who rescues it? The Russians . . . What's at stake is so much bigger than being a good neighbor. . Now is not the time for a region like the Arctic not to have a stronger (U.S.) presence."
Congress will have to defend the Coast -- and the Arctic -- from the Trump administration's bid to drown programs that are vital underpinnings to its economy.
Cantwell is ranking Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Murkowski is the chair. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., is a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Kilmer sits on the House Appropriations Committee.
U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Buetler, R-Wash., who represents Willapa Bay and towns at the mouth of ths Columbia River, is also a member of the House Appropriations Committee. She is the least-heard from member of Washington's congressional delegation, and a voice that is needed. Now!
By: Joel Connelly
Source: SeattlePI