"Drugs, Thugs, and Fish: Examining Coast Guard Law Enforcement Efforts."
Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation
2026-01-13
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Source: Congress.gov
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Disguard and maritime transportation will come to order. I ask unanimous consent that the chairman be authorized to declare a recess at any time during today's hearing without objection. So ordered. I also ask unanimous consent that members not on the subcommittee be permitted to sit with the subcommittee at today's hearing and ask questions without objection. So ordered. As a reminder, if members insert a document into the record, please also email it to documentsti at mail.house.gov. I now recognize myself for the purposes of an opening statement for five minutes. Thank you everyone for joining the subcommittee today to discuss the Coast Guard's law enforcement missions Specifically, we want to highlight the amazing work our Coast Guard members do to stop drugs and illegal aliens along our maritime border and the service's efforts to limit illegal, unreported, and unregulated or IUU fishing. To do that, I'd like to welcome our witnesses, Rear Admiral David Baratta, Deputy Commandant for Operations Policy and Assistant Commandant for Intelligence for the United States Coast Guard, and Ms. Heather McLeod, Director of Justice and Homeland Security Programs for the Government Accountability Office. The Coast Guard is our premier maritime guardian. Every day, Coast Guard cutters, small boats, aircraft, and boarding teams are protecting Americans from threats. The Coast Guard leads America's efforts to control, secure, and defend the nation's maritime border, starting at the United States southern border, where President Trump declared a national emergency. Illicit maritime activity is a national security threat with impacts far beyond our shores. The Coast Guard is essential to preventing dangerous drugs from poisoning our communities, boatloads of migrants from landing on our shores or perishing at sea on unworthy makeshift vessels and countering Chinese efforts to plunder our fish stocks. In November, Coast Guard Cutter Stone broke a record, offloading over 49,000 pounds of illicit narcotics, seized in 15 interdictions, valued at more than $362 million.
This marked the most cocaine seized by a single cutter in one patrol in Coast Guard history. At the same time, the Coast Guard is addressing increasing levels of maritime migration by protecting our shores and securing and defending 260 miles of the Rio Grande River. The Coast Guard's unparalleled expertise is essential to deter, interdict, and defeat threats to our communities. In 2020, the Coast Guard declared that IUU fishing replaced piracy as the leading global maritime security threat. IUU fishing robs nations of their fish stocks, their food, and it costs legal fishing operators tens of billions of dollars a year in revenue. China is the world's worst offender of this harm. The Chinese Communist Party provides billions of dollars in subsidies to its distant water fishing fleet, which plunders fishing stocks worldwide. Despite its best efforts, the Coast Guard's ability to interdict drugs, aliens, and IUU fishing has long been hindered by a lack of resources and personnel. Through the $25 billion generational investment that Congress authorized in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, we have helped change the tide with new vessels and aircraft coming online, but there is more to be done. In light of this subcommittee's oversight role over the Coast Guard, I look forward to hearing from our witnesses about what the Coast Guard is doing well, where it can be better, and what it is doing to strengthen its capabilities. In that same respect, I also look forward to hearing the Government Accountabilities Office's evaluation of the Coast Guard's mission performance. I appreciate our witnesses both joining us here today, and I would now like to recognize Ranking Member Carbajal for an opening statement for five minutes.
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Vice Admiral David Barata
Thank you, Ranking Member Carbajal, and thank you, Chair McDowell, for calling this very timely hearing. Every day, the women and men of the Coast Guard coordinate and execute law enforcement operations to halt illicit activities, to protect lives, and to safeguard the interests of the U.S. Through partnerships with other federal agencies and with international allies and partners, Coasties interrupt and intercept individuals breaking U.S. and international laws. Coast Guard has been enforcing maritime laws for 250 years, and it shows. From drug and migrant interdiction to IUU fishing enforcement, nobody does it better. Recently, the Coast Guard has intercepted and seized several Shadow Fleet oil tankers in the Caribbean. By violating international law, these vessels and their operators become subject to search and seizure by the Coast Guard. This is a longstanding Coast Guard authority. To ensure a safely executed mission, Coast Guard personnel work closely with other agencies. And while recent operations have received public attention and I'll have a few questions about it, it's not uncommon for the Coast Guard to exercise this authority in these venues. There are hundreds of dark fleet commercial vessels operating in violation of fishing laws, labor laws, and in some cases, trafficking people and narcotics. While the administration has chosen to target oil tankers, we can't forget these other serious maritime crimes. Illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, otherwise known as IUU fishing, is when vessel operators violate national or international laws, regulations, or management schemes designed to ensure the sustainability of fish stocks. And most of these, Cases are found in areas like Oceana or Alaska in and around the Aleutians. So we have certainly a direct interest in IUU fishing.
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