Coast Guard Congressional Affairs Officer Just Bad At His Day Job?

Our post “Reader Encourages us to Research Story on Secret Coast Guard Program” has generated a number of comments.  This one was deserving of its own post.

One day while flipping through the message board I saw ALCOAST 381. I read it – and I thought it was quite interesting given the issue with HBCU’s and the lack of outreach that has been reported on this site. This is the only time I had heard of this outreach program. I frankly know very little about HBCUs and started reading this website because of Deepwater but found the Civil Rights thing interesting.

I don’t know if this program really exists or not. But a reasonable person would come up with two conclusions:

1. Program exists… Well good for the Coast Guard. Bad for Coast Guard Congressional Affairs… If this program existed during the time of the hearings – why the hell didn’t they bring it up? It would have been at least one point in their favor – vice not knowing how many HBCU’s there are. If this LCDR was really engaged in this outreach at that time – then he sucks at his day job… and should have done a hell of a lot better to prep those two.

2. Program doesn’t exist or was recently created to appease the interest in CG Civil Rights program. Okay… I will admit, the Coast Guard hands out awards for some pretty bullsh*t things… I find it odd that no one before this ALCOAST has heard about this program before. If they just created this to say – see look what we’re doing – fine, that’s politics, and at least they’re trying something (may be a little too late but hey give them credit). But if this was recently created within the past few months – then you give the guy an award for it? That’s crap. If the program is all together made up… then that’s beyond stupid and frankly insulting to a whole bunch of people.

There is no inside knowledge here – this is just me watching this website for awhile and thinking to myself – why does this ALCOAST contradict a huge issue CGR has with the Civil Rights Program? And why is this the first time this outreach program is being touted? And finally, this person was in the office that is designed to prepare people for hearings on the hill and it never was mentioned as a talking point to use?

I’m not into conspiracies – but it just doesn’t add up.

Admiral Thad Allen Prepared for Global Warming – What?

Admiral Thad Allen, Commandant of the Coast Guard may be the first and only service chief to buy into Global Warming.  Nonetheless he told congress this week he’s ready.

The impacts of the global economic crisis, climate change, activity in the polar regions, persistent conflict, piracy, drug and human smuggling, and the increasing expansion and complexity of the Marine Transportation System (MTS) call not only for a modernized Coast Guard, but for authorities and capabilities needed to carry out all of our safety, security and stewardship missions in a rapidly changing operating environment.

Coast Guard substantially short of performance target area mission in defense readiness.

The following are Observations on the Fiscal Year 2010 Budget and Related Performance and Management Challenges by Stephen L. Caldwell, Director Homeland Security and Justice Issues, Government Accountability Office.

The Coast Guard continues to face several management challenges that we have identified in prior work and as part of our ongoing efforts to assess the Coast Guard’s workforce planning challenges and operational impacts resulting from acquisition-related delays.

Coast Guard has assumed lead responsibility for planning, organizing, and integrating the individual assets comprising the Deepwater acquisition program, the Coast Guard has not always adhered to disciplined procurement processes, and its budget submissions to Congress do not include detailed cost estimates.

Moreover, the ongoing delays associated with the acquisition of Deepwater assets, such as Fast Response Cutters and National Security Cutters, have resulted in operational impacts, such as the projected loss of thousands of days of availability for the National Security Cutter to conduct missions until 2017.

Coast Guard reported meeting 15 of its 21 performance targets in fiscal year 2008.

Coast Guard reported falling substantially short of its performance target for only one mission—defense readiness.

Rasmussen Reports Shows President Approval Rating at 34%

The President’s numbers have fallen since the euphoria of inauguration day, but are still generally positive. Since January, the number who Strongly Approve has fallen from 43% to 34% in June. During that same time frame, the number who Strongly Disapprove has grown from 20% to 32%. That’s about what you’d expect from a President transitioning from a honeymoon period to a time when he will start to be judged by his policies. Those numbers translate to a Presidential Approval Index that has declined from +23 in January to +2 in June.

Visit Rasmussen Reports for the full the report.

Coast Guard Employees Question Secret HBCU Program

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Our story Reader Encourages us to Research Story on Secret Coast Guard Program has generated a few new contacts at Coast Guard and few comments.  We spoke with nearly a dozen employees from Headquarters to field EO Offices about Lieutenant Commander Wilborne Watson’s HBCU program.  None knew of the program and most had to pull up the ALCOAST to even understand the question we were asking.

We’ll submit a FOIA on this one, and ask Congress to dig deeper into the issue.  At two recent hearings on the issue, this program never came up, yet it was worthy of recogntion of an award.  We don’t buy it, and don’t congress will either.

Anonymous

The award of a presidential citation to Terri Dickerson is what has created the perception that civil rights awards are bogus. The CG Academy EEO director also recently received a civil rights award … furthering that perception. An HBCU initiative, if it existed, would have come under the auspices of OCR. Seems like Terri Dickerson would have advertised and marketed the HBCU initiative in her newsletter, long before having it recognized for an award.

Government Accountability Office Says Coast Guard Continues to Face Managment Challenges

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Check back later today for this special report.  Yesterday the Commandant’s Blog featured updates on the Hearing but left out much of the bad news.  The GAO report makes it clear that Allen needs to act not talk.

The Coast Guard continues to face several management challenges. For example, GAO reported in June 2009 that although the Coast Guard has taken steps to monitor the progress of the modernization program, development of performance measures remains in the early stages with no time frame specified for completion. Also, as GAO reported in April 2009, although the Coast Guard has assumed the lead role for managing the Deepwater acquisition program, it has not always adhered to procurement processes, and its budget submissions to Congress do not include detailed cost estimates. GAO also reported that the Coast Guard faces challenges in workforce planning, including difficulties in hiring and retaining qualified acquisition personnel. Further, GAO’s ongoing work has noted that delays associated with the Coast Guard’s newest vessel, the National Security Cutter, are projected to result in the loss of thousands of cutter operational days for conducting missions through 2017.