Coast Guard Asks Murphy For Equipment Rescue

Chris Murphy, newly empowered in the U.S. Senate, got a message Friday to bring back to D.C.: The Coast Guard needs updated boats, buildings, and communication systems to continue as frontline security in New Haven.

Sen. Murphy received the message during a roundtable discussion Friday with leaders at the U.S. Coast Guard Station on Woodward Avenue.

Murphy made the visit to the local station in his new role of chair of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, which oversees U.S. Coast Guard budget and overall the government’s third-largest department.

The local Coast Guard Station has been working overtime during Covid with an increase in search and rescue missions. There has been a related rise in use of recreational water crafts during the pandemic, said Commanding Officer and Captain of the Long Island Port Eva Van Camp.

Van Camp and First District Commander Tom Allen led the discussion with Murphy about the station’s aging infrastructure and outdated water craft. The leaders said one of the station’s boats still in use was built not long after the World War II Battle of the Bulge.

Allen said the Coast Guard needs investment to continue protecting a $5.4 trillion national boarding transportation system.

“To keep up with our good work, we need to rebuild our IT network and invest in our infrastructure,” Allen said.

Allen and Van Camp said Coast Guard enlistment is at a low. The station hopes to amp up its outreach efforts statewide — looking in particular to recruit more females and underrepresented minorities.

“If we get new cutters, we need great crews to be able to go out there and serve,” said Allen.

Allen said ​“readiness” is the priority for the station in order to maintain the shores and crews. ​“Instead of putting money into more maintenance, we can invest in readiness and new infrastructure,” he said.

The station regularly uses icebreaking tugs in the Connecticut River to prevent ice build up and flooding. It uses a 20-year-old navigation boat as well, said Van Camp. ​“Mobility is how we operate. It’s our main mission.”

The outdated boats at times can take crews extra time to maintain, Allen said.

“We got to make sure funding is included in these upcoming votes, to make sure that we modernize this fleet and make sure that the folks who protect us are out there on modern boats with modern assets,” Murphy said.

Murphy ascended to his new role as a result of leading the charge for a change in the way the Senate chooses subcommittee chairs.

Following is an item about that change, originally published in a new, essential thrice-daily weekday Capitol Hill newsletter called Punchbowl News:

Democratic Old Bulls Defeated

Senate Democratic chairs lost a bid to try to reconsider a party vote to exert influence over their subcommittee panels, a rare defeat for ​“Old Bulls” who run the party committees.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D‑Conn.) proposed a rule change that said junior members could start picking their subcommittee assignments before the full committee chairs did. This meant the chairs couldn’t wield a full committee gavel and then take over a choice subcommittee as well, which would’ve given them even more money and staff. Sen. Jack Reed (D‑R.I.), joined by Sens. Patrick Leahy (D‑Vt.) and Tom Carper (D‑Del.), tried to force a ​“revote” on the Murphy Rule, hoping to defeat it.

That didn’t work, however. So Democrats begin their subcommittee selections with the Murphy Rule in effect. Chalk one up for the little guy.