Here’s a sobering story from The New York Times about how the government shutdown has affected the Coast Guard. It’s a story about grounded aircraft, postponed repairs and reduced missions. Read it here:
WASHINGTON – The government shutdown that ended last month has taken a lasting hit on the Coast Guard, which has grounded aircraft, stopped ship repairs and will leave parts of an air station in Puerto Rico without emergency generators for the start of hurricane season because of a backlog that will take months to process.
Internal documents obtained by The New York Times show that the Coast Guard’s ship maintenance command lost at least 7,456 productive workdays – or 28.5 years’ worth of workdays – as a direct result of the partial shutdown, which furloughed 6,400 civilian employees.
“This reality poses significant risk to operational availability of cutters and boats,” the documents concluded.
The service also noted a “domino effect” that has caused delays in repairs and maintenance to its roughly 200 aircraft, which, in turn, could keep them from being immediately available.
There are “tremendous backlogs of contractor work,” the documents said.
The delays are expected to significantly limit the number of ships and aircraft available for Coast Guard operations, which generally include drug interaction as well as search-and-rescue and maritime safety missions. They will also affect the training of the uniformed and civilian Coast Guard force. Read more:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/22/us/politics/government-shutdown-coast-guard.html
