More stuff you can't blame on the governor of Louisiana...
NATIONAL GUARD AND COAST GUARD UNDERFUNDED AND OVERSTRETCHED
LOUISIANA GUARD WARNED OF EQUIPMENT SHORTAGES BEFORE KATRINA
Louisiana National Guard Said Before Katrina That It Needed Equipment Back From Iraq If It Is To Respond To A Natural Disaster. �The National Guard needs that equipment back home to support the homeland security mission,� said Lt. Colonel Pete Schneider with the LA National Guard. �You've got combatant commanders over there who need it they say they need it, they don't want to lose what they h ave, and we certainly understand that it's a matter of us educating that combatant commander, we need it back here as well,� Col. Schneider said. [ABC 26 WGNO, 8/1/05]
NATIONAL GUARD STRETCHED THIN, UNABLE TO FULFILL DUTIES AT HOME
Iraq Has Left National Guard Units At Home Short Of Equipment. Already suffering from manpower shortages, the National Guard�s overstretched forces are being confronted with another problem: not enough equipment to supply Guard troops at home. �To fully equip troops in Iraq, the Pentagon has stripped local Guard units of about 24,000 pieces of equipment. That has left Guard units at home, already seriously short of gear<.� [Detroit Free Press, 6/13/05]
Gen. McCaffrey Said We Could Permanently Damage The Guard And Reserve. Gen. McCaffrey warned against overstretching Guard and Reserve. �[W]e're going to damage fatally the National Guard if we try and continue using Reserve components at this rate. Forty percent of that force in Iraq right now is Reserve component. We have shot the bull. We've got to back off and build an Army and Marine Corps capable of sustaining these operations.� [Meet the Press, 8/28/05]
Governors Say Long Deployments Leaving Their States Vulnerable. �[S]tate officials think continued deployments will have an effect on people who sign up for or remain in the Minnesota National Guard. At a National Governor's Association meeting�some governors criticized the burden of repeated deployment, saying that the troops' absence leaves their states unprotected against things like natural disasters. Officials in Idaho and Montana have said they are unprepared if forest fires hit their states this summer.� [AP, 8/10/05]
And problems for the Coast Guard...
COAST GUARD�S RESPONSIBILITIES INCREASING WITHOUT ADEQUATE FUNDS
Coast Guard Gave Congress List of $919 Million in Unfunded Priorities. The Coast Guard has given Congress a $919 million wish list of programs and hardware not funded in the Bush Administration's fiscal 2006 budget request. For the first time, the Coast Guard has sent Congressional representatives an unfunded priorities list - a tally of needed items not included in the fiscal 2006 request. The list includes an additional $637 million for the service's Deepwater recapitalization program; $11.6 million for helicopter repairs; $4 million to increase aviation maritime patrol hours, and $59 million to renovate shore stations. [Journal of Commerce Online, 5/11/05]
Coast Guard Faced With Helicopter Problems. The head of the US Coast Guard told Congress his equipment is failing at unacceptable rates. Despite increases in spending on maintenance, the agency's older large craft -- called cutters -- experience equipment failures capable of ruining a mission almost 50 percent of the time, according to Coast Guard officials. Further, the agency's HH-65 helicopters suffered a rate of 329 mishaps per 100,000 flight hours in 2004, way over the Federal Aviation Administration's acceptable standard of 1 mishap per 100,000 hours. [UPI, 6/10/05; USA Today, 7/6/05]
Commandant Says Coast Guard Short On Resources. Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thomas H. Collins said, �Do we have more business than we have resources? Yes.� The Coast Guard has put the cost of implementing safety regulations laid out by Congress at $7.3 billion over the next ten years. The Bush administration only asked for $46 million for aid to the ports in the 2005 budget. [Budget of the United States, www.omb.gov; House Approps Cmte Transcript, 3/31/04; Washington Post, 4/2/03; Boston Globe, 6/30/04]