U.S. 2010 budgetU.S. Coast Guard budget reduced by $20 million relative to 2009

The DHS 2010 budget was submitted to Congress as part of the president’s budget proposal. Many picked up the fact the budget for the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) was cut. USCG supporters point out that the budget document itself contains many facts and figures which prove the essential service the USCG provides. The service has more than 41,000 active duty members, 8,100 reservists, nearly 8,100 civilian employees, and approximately 30,000 volunteer auxiliarists, and they were able to accomplish:

• Responded to over 24,000 search and rescue cases and saved more than 4,000 lives
• Broke last year’s record by removing nearly 370,000 pounds of cocaine bound toward the United States via the Transit Zone
• Disrupted twenty cocaine events and intercepted two Self-Propelled Semi Submersible vessels in the fourth quarter alone
• Deployed six patrol boats and 400 personnel to protect Iraqi critical maritime oil infrastructure, train Iraqi naval forces, and enforce U.N. sanctions in the Arabian Gulf
• Interdicted nearly 5,000 undocumented migrants attempting to illegally enter the United States

There are many more facts and figures to go right along with those cited above.

Now to the 2010 budget. Last year the Coast Guard received $9,975,779,000 in funding, and increase from the 2008 funding. The new requested funding is looking like $9,955,663,000 — a shortfall of more than $20,000,000 from the 2009 budget. he shortfall will remain even after factoring in the slight injection from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and after including the anticipated DoD supplemental money of $241 million for Operating Expenses Appropriation in support of Overseas Contingency Operations.