Committee member Carbajal presses Coast Guard leaders on FY27 infrastructure shortfall

Committee member Carbajal opened a hearing to review the Coast Guard's FY27 budget request and urged faster congressional action to remove a lapse in appropriations that is affecting the service. "They deserve better from their government," Carbajal said, and asked Coast Guard leaders to explain how the service will align new personnel with facilities and ports.

Carbajal said the administration's FY27 request "offers significant promise in some areas," singling out a 20% increase in the operations and support (O&S) budget that he said could help the service prepare for core missions and grow staffing. But he said the procurements, construction and investments (PC&I) request "fails to meet the needs of the current Coast Guard" and warned that O&S gains will be undermined without matching infrastructure funding.

"A 15% decrease in the PC&I funding simply does not do the job," Carbajal said, noting a concrete allocation he said leaves little for the broader backlog: "306 million of the 346 million dedicated to shoreside infrastructure is slated to be spent in Alaska for Arctic security cutter home porting. That leaves 40 million left to attempt to address an over $7 billion backlog." He called on the service to prioritize investments at major existing sites, naming Base Seattle, Training Center Cape May and the Coast Guard Academy as facilities that need attention now.

Carbajal also flagged recent reporting and Coast Guard documents about changes to planned home porting at Base Seattle, saying initial plans to "home port four offshore patrol cutters" had been scaled back to accommodate "up to four major cutters instead." He asked Coast Guard leadership to explain the change and how planning and funding for Base Seattle will be prioritized.

Carbajal closed by saying the committee will continue vigorous oversight of the service's implementation of its plans and funding priorities.