Sen. Ted Cruz Questions USCG Commandant on Fleet Progress After Historic Investment

With that, Mr. Chairman, the floor is yours. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I fully agree with those sentiments. Admiral, welcome. Good to see you. Patrol forces in Southwest Asia's six fast-response cutters in Bahrain are doing difficult work in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea, escorting commercial traffic, countering piracy, and interdicting smuggling networks that use small vessels and dhows to move drugs, weapons, and other contraband. As you know, seizures of these vessels at sea can be extremely dangerous. In 2024, two Navy SEALs tragically drowned during a nighttime seizure in this area when trying to board a dhow moving Iranian weapons to Yemen. To my colleagues who think our Coast Guard and Navy should be boarding every Venezuelan drug runner, that's a risk you take, as our friend Senator Sheehy has pointed out. Congress just directed you to develop a policy to disincentivize maritime drug trafficking, including seizing or otherwise disposing of trafficking vessels. Right now, these sea pirates are just turned on their way with no consequence. What specific changes do you intend to make in the next year to turn these interdictions into real deterrence, resulting in fewer repeat offenders and fewer dhows going back to sea to move drugs and guns? Mr. Chairman, thank you for your question and your attention on this issue. We're very proud of our crews and patrol forces in Southwest Asia that do this dangerous but very important work. Under the command of U.S. Central Command. And so I will direct I've directed I've communicated when I commanded Atlantic area with the Central Command commander and the commander of of Fifth Fleet out there. And I've asked Admiral Moore to do the same. I'm going to reengage in the Department of War, the Central Command commander, Admiral Cooper, and talk to him about the way forward on this so that we can make sure we're being more effective as we do these important boarding operations. I want to return to the topic that the chairman mentioned just a minute ago, which is after years of neglect, the Coast Guard is finally receiving the resources it needs to stop illegal immigration, to intercept drug traffickers and to keep Americans safe at sea. In the Working Families Tax Cut Act that we passed last summer, it included the largest recapitalization of the Coast Guard in American history, over twenty four billion dollars. We also cut through layers of red tape and gave the Coast Guard flexibility to buy new ships and aircraft quickly. Let's talk about outcomes. What are three concrete capabilities you will deliver this year with this fund? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So we are moving at speed and obligating the funds and then delivering the outcomes is of paramount importance. And so the first outcome we're going to deliver is and we've already obligated this funding. And that's the autonomous systems. So we've already invested in, obligated, and we're delivering the autonomous systems that we're using for air, short and medium range. We're also using for surface. And we've got a contract, for example, with sail drone. We're using that for border control. And then we're using it for underwater, remotely operated vehicle operations as well. We're using those right now off the Polar Star in Antarctica. So that's one example of a suite of capabilities that we're bringing to bear in terms of delivering outcomes. The other outcomes is we are we just awarded in early January, I think around the 6th of January, a contract for their rebuild of station South Padre Island, which is on along the border there in southern Texas with Mexico. And it guards the Gulf of America. And it is the eastern end of Operation River Wall in the Rio Grande River. And that 200 billion dollar award and investment will deliver a a much more capable and enduring station there at South Padre Island that incorporates the customs and border protection capability and other teammates. So, for example, from the state of Texas as a secure communications facility and gives us the the preeminent facility we need to be able to control, secure and defend the southern border. Very good. And I will say the investment in South Padre Island, I'm certainly grateful for as our as our Texans across the board. Let's let's focus where you ended that in October twenty twenty five, the Coast Guard surged additional response boats and tactical teams to the Rio Grande under Operation River Wall to help establish operational control along roughly 260 miles of border river in South Texas. What are your clear, measurable outcomes for this operation as you surge forces to the river and how will you prevent this mission from draining cutters, aircraft and boarding teams from offshore counter drug and other critical tasks vital to Texas? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So as the senior operational commander for the Coast Guard is common on, I directed that operation began River Wall in October and we had a presence there before a longstanding presence, but it was fairly small boat teams and boat crews working with Border Patrol. We needed to infuse a much greater capability. And now we're looking at what is that enduring long range force posture to do Operation River Wall in a way that balances our commitment of forces there with operational demands in other areas. It's principally a boat force and tactical law enforcement supported by U.S. and other surveillance capability. But we've learned a lot of lessons since October as we've done that. Our primary metrics are the number of interdictions of border crossings working with Border Patrol and then also deterred attempted crossings across the Rio Grande. Very good. I'll say finally, I appreciated your remarks earlier today about making sure that Coast Guard leadership is in place. And this committee will be meeting this coming Tuesday to advance those Coast Guard promotions, including the vice commandant. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.