Bush urged to hasten Coast Guard updates

WASHINGTON – Last week in Charleston, S.C., President Bush posed in front of a 40-year-old Coast Guard cutter that, under his budget proposal, won’t be replaced until it’s 48 years old.

Bush used the USCGC Reliance as a backdrop while he touted his administration’s efforts to raise spending for port security by 13 percent over last year, including a 9 percent hike for the Coast Guard.

Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress say more money needs to be spent to shorten the timetable for modernizing the Coast Guard fleet from 20 years to 10.

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, urged the Bush administration to accelerate the timetable for the modernization program, called Deepwater, in a Nov. 14 letter signed by six other Republicans and seven Democrats.