SAN DIEGO — Construction of the Coast Guard's eighth national security cutter could be in jeopardy.
Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Paul Zukunft, the Commandant of the Coast Guard, said he won't be able to start a new contract for the top-of-the-line 418-foot cutter until Congress approves the bill.
"It inhibits your ability to start new contracts and, for us, it's finishing out the contract for the last national security cutter," he said in an interview at West 2015, a conference and expo by the Armed Forces Communication and Electronics Association International and the United States Naval Institute.
Current funding ends on Feb. 27, and Congress has until then to pass the bill before there could be to avoid problems with the ship's contract, he said.
"If this drags out much further, it really does put that contract into jeopardy and, at the end of the day, it causes a delay, which causes costs to go up," Zukunft said.
The national security cutter replaces the 378-foot high-endurance cutters that have been in service since the 1960s. The Coast Guard says the new, 418-foot-long cutter is faster and has greater endurance and range than its predecessor. It can also launch and recover boats, unmanned aircraft and rotary wing aircraft. Huntington Ingalls Shipbuilding began fabrication of Kimball, the seventh national security cutter, on Jan. 19; the cutter is to be delivered in 2018. The eighth NSC is to be named the Midgett.
Commandant Adm. Paul Zukunft, seen here speaking at the commissioning of the national security cutter Hamilton, says the budget impasse places the contract for the eighth NSC in jeopardy.
Photo Credit: PO1 Stephen Lehmann/Coast Guard District 7 PADE
Congress has stalled on passing the DHS spending bill after Republicans inserted language to block President Obama's plan to use his executive authority to limit deportations of immigrants in the country illegally.
The Republicans contend the president overstepped his authority. Democrats, in turn, are opposing the provision, and the parties have reached an impasse.
On Monday, a federal district court judge in Texas issued a temporary injunction that blocks prevents the president's efforts to prevent immigrants from being deported while Texas and other states pursue a lawsuit that would prevent the president from proceeding. The White House said it would appeal the injunction.
Lawmakers have not indicated if the Texas ruling will have any impact on the DHS bill deliberations.
