Congratulating the Commandant of the Coast Guard and the Superintendent of the Coast Guard Academy and its staff for 100 years of operation of the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 258) congratulating the Commandant of the Coast Guard and the Superintendent of the Coast Guard Academy and its staff for 100 years of operation of the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H. Con. Res. 258.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

H. Con. Res. 258, authored by Congressman Courtney, celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, and honors the many men and women who have graduated from the Academy and served our Nation with distinction over the past 100 years.

On September 15, 1910, what is today the Coast Guard Academy was established as the School of Instruction to the U.S. Revenue Cutter Academy at Fort Trumbull in New London. After the former Life Saving Service and the Revenue Cutter Service were merged in 1915 to form the modern U.S. Coast Guard, the school in New London formally became the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. In the 1930s, the Academy was moved to its present location on the Thames River in a new facility built specifically to house it.

Today, the Coast Guard Academy combines instruction in academic subjects, physical fitness, and character and leadership development to create the holistic education that prepares the future officers of the United States Coast Guard to manage all of the Coast Guard's mission areas, including search and rescue, marine safety, homeland security and maritime domain awareness, and oil spill response.

Mr. Speaker, as we celebrate the Academy's 100th anniversary, I also note that on June 28 the Academy's Class of 2014 was inducted: 199 male and 90 female cadets were sworn into the class. I am also proud to report that nearly 24 percent of this incoming class is composed of minorities, including 35 Hispanic Americans, 15 African Americans, and 13 Asian Americans. By comparison, the Class of 2013, which was inducted in 2009, was comprised of only 15.5 percent minorities, and previous classes have been even less diverse.

During my tenure as chairman of the Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation, I have held four hearings in the subcommittee specifically to examine diversity in the Coast Guard, and particularly the decline in diversity at the Academy. Over the past year, the Academy has implemented new outreach initiatives in diverse communities that have enabled the Coast Guard to reach students who are qualified to attend the Academy and eager to serve our great Nation, but who have likely been unaware that the Coast Guard Academy even existed. These efforts are helping to ensure that the Coast Guard Academy is no longer our ``best kept secret in higher education.''

The Coast Guard Academy's diligent recruitment efforts have yielded great results, and this success reflects the commitment of the entire service to extend diversity at all levels. I commend Admiral Allen, the former commandant, as well as Admiral Papp, who was recently appointed as the commandant, as well as the Academy's leadership, including Superintendent Burhoe, for this achievement.

That said, the next step must be putting in place the measures that will sustain this level of diversity and expand it in coming years so that the Academy and the Coast Guard's officers corps fully reflect the diversity of America.

With that, I commend Congressman Courtney and I certainly thank my ranking member, Mr. LoBiondo. I urge all Members to vote for this wonderful resolution.

With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Courtney), the sponsor of this legislation.

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I want to thank the ranking member of our full committee, Mr. Mica, and Mr. Duncan. Both of them made some very good points that I would just like to elaborate on a little bit.

I call our Coast Guard our thin blue line at sea, and I think when we saw the oil spill situation, we realized that they are indeed our coast guard, they are guarding our coast.

And Mr. Mica was absolutely right. I think that sometimes those that are performing some of the most important tasks are occasionally unseen, unnoticed, unappreciated and unapplauded, in the words of a Greek theologian, but they do the most important things. And this is a wake-up call, I think, to our Nation, when we see something like our oil spill, of how important the Coast Guard Academy is in training young folks to go out there and be leaders. But it is also a lesson to our Nation to give the United States Coast Guard the priority status that it gives the other armed service entities. It is very, very important.

I know that as I travel around the country, every time I go into a port where the Coast Guard is stationed, I try to spend some time with them to let them know what a grateful Nation we are for what they do every day. But one of the things, Madam Speaker, that has always impressed me in a lot of the ceremonies that I've gone to where they were giving medals is how these men and women put their lives on the line and put their lives before others to save lives. I've heard stories of 20-foot seawalls where they were able to save people, and again, putting their life on the line, and then all the other things they do.

I've often said that, since 9/11, their responsibilities have increased tremendously. And Mr. Mica is absolutely right, it is important that this Congress support the Coast Guard to the

Nth degree. It must be and has been a bipartisan effort to make sure they get the funding that they need, and we will continue to do that.

So I, too, congratulate Thad Allen--Admiral Allen--and now Admiral Papp for all that they have done. When we look at Katrina, the agency that performed, without a doubt, the best was the United States Coast Guard, saving over 35,000 people, many of whom would have been dead today.

And so I take this moment not only to salute 100 years of the academy, but like my colleagues, to salute a great organization, one that is very small but has a big heart.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, again I urge the Members to support this legislation. I think it's very important that we pause to recognize these wonderful, strong, courageous, and patriotic citizens of our Nation who, again, are our thin blue line at sea.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

I thank our distinguished ranking member, Mr. Duncan, the gentleman from Tennessee, for yielding. I am pleased to join with the chairman of the Coast Guard Subcommittee, whom I have had the opportunity to work with in a number of capacities.

In support of this resolution, I am pleased to be a cosponsor.

The Coast Guard Academy, not a lot of folks know a lot about it. Everyone has heard of West Point, the Air Force Academy out in Colorado Springs. Everyone has heard of Annapolis and the U.S. Naval Academy close by here.

I highly recommend to Members who have not had the opportunity to visit, to visit the Coast Guard Academy, one of our finest military service academies, unsung heroes. It has over 50,000 men and women in service and many of the leaders come from the Coast Guard Academy.

One of the neat things I have to do as a ranking member of the full committee, Mr. Oberstar, the chairman, and myself get to serve on the Board of Visitors, as do some other Members from Congress; and you get to see firsthand the operations of the United States Coast Guard Academy.

I have been there and had the opportunity to meet with their leaders. They are very fortunate to have Admiral Scott Burhoe, who is doing an outstanding job of providing leadership and direction and commitment that the Coast Guard has always had to the young men and women who attend and graduate there.

The motto of the Coast Guard is Semper Paratus, and that's ``Always Ready,'' and that's the mission of the Coast Guard Academy, to make those young leaders always ready. They are our first line of defense nationally, the United States Coast Guard.

We call on them, whether it's for safety or national security.

These are some of the most fantastic graduates, young men and women of this academy, and everyone who wears the label of being part of the Coast Guard. They don't whine. They don't whimper. They never come here asking for more compensation, more rights, more employee benefits. They get their mission assigned and they do their job. They are incredible. They are underpaid and overworked, but they are always ready when the Nation needs them.

I am pleased again to join others in recognizing the leadership of Thad Allen. We saw, when we had the spill in the gulf, who was responsible as the first responder from the Federal level--the United States Coast Guard.

I was dismayed when the Obama administration proposed its budget earlier this year before this spill and recommended cutting 1,100 Coast Guard positions, cutting back ships, helicopters, airplanes, and other assets that are so essential for the Coast Guard to carry out its mission. We give our men and women in the military, whether it's Coast Guard or any other service, the resources to do the job, and then we commit them to complete that job and they get it done.

So I am also pleased that both sides of the aisle stepped up when those cuts were proposed and they did not accept that recommendation, and those cuts are not going to take place because of bipartisan support on both sides of the aisle.

So, again, we are here to recognize the accomplishments not only of Thad Allen, but our new Admiral, the head of the Coast Guard, Bob Papp, an incredible gentleman.

How blessed we've been to have people like Thad Allen who, I think way back when I became a ranking member, was dealt probably every difficult situation, starting off with unrest in Cuba and problems with Guantanamo, preparing for any possible mass migration, through the Deepwater controversy, things he had nothing to do with but inherited those challenges and stepped up to the plate every single time. And then as he's about to retire, as he's about to exit his command and Bob Papp take over, he was dealt the cards of the oil spill and stepped right into that, and he has provided leadership. We haven't provided all the direction, resources, or assets that we should to deal with that, nor the administration, but Thad Allen and others have been there.

And Scott Burhoe continues to lead a great academy we can all be proud of.

So I join my colleagues in recognizing 100 years of service to our Nation, the United States Coast Guard Academy.

I want to, first of all, thank Chairman Cummings and the ranking member for their help in moving this resolution forward.

I particularly want to say thank you to Mr. Cummings, who is clearly someone who doesn't come from Connecticut but someone who, because of the mission and the duties of his chairmanship, has taken an extraordinary interest in the Coast Guard Academy. He has been up to the academy and addressed the student body in an event that was widely covered by the media, and I know Superintendent Burhoe and others really appreciate the strong interest that he has in the academy, and I want to thank Mr. Duncan for his kind words as well.

We are very proud of the Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut. All you have to do is turn on the TV these days and you can see Admiral Thad Allen, the national incident commander at the Gulf of Mexico, showing extraordinary leadership skills, talent, both in terms of science and organization to get the best efforts to clean up the gulf.

The new commandant of the Coast Guard service, Admiral Papp, is a graduate of the Coast Guard Academy, as is Admiral Allen; and it is clear that the academy has done just an outstanding job in terms of giving the graduates there the skills that they need in terms of science, math, maritime sciences, but as well just the leadership skills to make sure that this critical military branch gets the finest folks carrying out its mission every single day, whether it's interceding drug runners coming into the U.S. or, again, leading the efforts down in the Gulf of Mexico to clean up the spill.

Chairman Cummings described very eloquently the history of the Coast Guard Academy, the merger which took place in the 1930s, and its present home in New London on the Thames River. I was driving by a couple of days ago and saw the first-year cadets out there sweating in 100-degree heat doing calisthenics. They are also out there on the Thames River learning sailing skills.

The Eagle, which is the tall ship our country is proud to display both at coastal cities up and down the east and west coast but also in other parts of the world, is a training facility for Coast Guard cadets. Again, every single graduate over the last several decades has had the experience of working on the Eagle which, again, is a proud symbol of our country and its great maritime mission and also it's great maritime future.

What I would just say is lastly, again, partly because of Chairman Cummings' interest, you have seen, I think, recently an effort by the Coast Guard Academy to get much more involved in the community of the city of New London. It is a distressed city and has many challenges, but we now have Coast Guard cadets who are out there helping in terms of the school system, out there helping in terms of cleanups and environmental efforts in the city, providing entertainment with the great Coast Guard band at different local events throughout the city. Again, we are very proud of the fact that they are a very involved neighbor in the city of New London in southeastern Connecticut.

Lastly, I would just say that the U.S. News and World Report, with its annual college survey, demonstrated the success of the Coast Guard Academy with its ranking of the Coast Guard Academy in the top 10 as far as small 4-year colleges. Any effort to widen the circle of young people--some may be listening here in the Chamber today, to learn about the Coast Guard Academy--it's free, but it's also the highest of quality in terms of the educational program that it provides. And, as I said earlier, it provides great leadership in terms of a great homeland security function that we need at so many different levels.

So I want to thank again Chairman Cummings and Mr. Duncan for their support for this academy. I think it's an academy that deserves a bit of a spotlight today in terms of the great work that it's doing.

I urge all Members to support this measure.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of House Concurrent Resolution 258, which congratulates the superintendent and staff of the United States Coast Guard Academy, as well as the commandant of the Coast Guard, on the 100 years of operation of the United States Coast Guard Academy.

Established in 1910 as the instructional school to the U.S. Revenue Cutter Academy and since being renamed and relocated to its present location on the banks of the Thames River in New London, Connecticut, the United States Coast Guard Academy has, for the last 100 years, upheld the highest reputation in molding young men and women into officers that form the backbone of leadership in the United States Coast Guard.

Many years ago, in fact, shortly after graduating from the University of Tennessee, I took a tour with a friend of mine up to new England and one of the things we did was tour the United States Coast Guard Academy. In more recent years, I have gone many times to various Coast Guard installations around the United States and have seen the work of the Coast Guard and seen demonstrations that they have performed, and I have great admiration and respect for all of the men and women in the United States Coast Guard.

Often sort of an ignored or forgotten branch of our military service, I think in more recent years the Coast Guard has come into its own and more and more people recognize the great importance of the mission being performed by these outstanding men and women. The quality of character and leadership traits displayed by graduates of the United States Coast Guard Academy reflect on the exemplary job that the staff and faculty have been doing for the last 100 years and this resolution is at least small, a small way of recognizing all persons affiliated with the Coast Guard Academy for a job well done.

I encourage all Members to support this resolution, and I thank my colleagues on the other side of the aisle and especially the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Courtney) for introducing it.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the ranking member of the full committee, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mica).

Madam Speaker, I will join with Ranking Member Mica and Chairman Cummings in their commendations, particularly of Admiral Allen, for whom all of us have such great respect, and say once again congratulations on this 100th anniversary to the United States Coast Guard Academy.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H. Con. Res. 258. I thank the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Courtney) for his work on this legislation.

H. Con. Res. 258 congratulates the Commandant of the Coast Guard, the Superintendent of the United States Coast Guard Academy, and the Academy's staff on the Academy's 100th year of operation in New London, Connecticut.

In 1910, the School of Instruction to the Revenue Cutter Service relocated from Curtis Bay, Maryland to New London at Fort Trumbull. The school became known as the Coast Guard Academy when the Life Saving Service and the Revenue Cutter Service were consolidated in 1915. In 1932, the Academy moved to its present location in New London, Connecticut, on the West Bank of the Thames River.

The Coast Guard Academy is the single accession point for all Coast Guard officers and home to the Coast Guard's Leadership Development Center, which touches virtually every aspect of the service through a host of training programs, including Officer Candidate School. Furthermore, the Coast Guard Academy is a highly competitive educational institution that provides a holistic education that includes academics, physical fitness, and leadership training as the Academy prepares its cadets for the Coast Guard's many diverse missions.

In addition to congratulating the Commandant of the Coast Guard and the Superintendent of the Coast Guard Academy and its staff for 100 years of operation of the Coast Guard Academy in New London, H. Con. Res. 258 honors the many men and women who have graduated from the Academy and encourages all Americans to learn more about the Academy, its missions, and its long history.

As we celebrate this important anniversary, I also note that on June 28, 2010, the Coast Guard Academy inducted the Class of 2014, which is one of the most diverse in school history. Of the 290 students who started this summer, 68 students--or 23 percent--are minorities. This is the second-highest percentage in the school's history and higher than the Class of 2013, which consists of 15 percent minority students.

I urge my colleagues to join me in agreeing to H. Con. Res. 258.