Letter to the editor

  • May 30, 2001

It is ironic that the person with direct input on the Coast Guard's budget — Rep. Hal Rogers of Kentucky — is worried about a "monster that will eat us alive." ["Coast Guard confident despite Deepwater wake," Federal Computer Week, May 7.]

That monster has already been created. Its name is "decay," and it is in fact eating the Coast Guard alive. The erosion of efficiency in the Coast Guard's equipment and personnel was caused by years of paltry funding by Capitol Hill, even though the Coast Guard has been rated one of the best-managed agencies in the entire federal government.

Likewise, JayEtta Hecker's comments give rise to irony when she is quoted as saying the Deepwater project "depends on a sustained and high level of funding" to come to fruition.

One would hope so. After all, if the Coast Guard had an appropriate level of funding for a sustained period of time, the service wouldn't be in such dire straits today.

Rogers and Hecker may have made the Coast Guard's case despite their testimony.

Phillip Thompson
Senior fellow
The Lexington Institute
Arlington, Va.

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