Sponsors (5)
The bill strengthens Coast Guard capacity, personnel support, maritime safety, and victim protections while increasing federal spending, adding significant administrative and procurement constraints, and introducing privacy, legal, and readiness tradeoffs that must be managed.
Coast Guard personnel and coastal communities: authorizes higher end strength and expanded program funding through FY2029, enabling more staffing, pay/benefits, and operational capacity (search-and-rescue, law enforcement, Arctic missions, R&D).
Victims of sexual assault and harassment in the Coast Guard (including cadets and service members): creates stronger victim protections, faster transfer/relocation options, long-term evidence retention, standardized reporting, and new accountability mechanisms to improve support and pursue justice.
Ports, coastal communities, responders, and the marine environment: tightens maritime safety and pollution-response requirements (modern response equipment, firefighter guidance, NRC online notifications, updated contingency plans) and advances unmanned systems and navigation/aids studies to improve readiness and environmental protection.
Taxpayers and federal budget managers: the bill authorizes substantial new spending and expanded program responsibilities across FY2025–2029, increasing federal obligations and potential pressure on deficits or tradeoffs with other priorities.
Coast Guard leaders, operators, and crews: numerous new reporting, briefings, short statutory deadlines, and recurring studies will create heavy administrative and compliance burdens that can divert staff time and resources from operational missions.
Readiness and modernization programs: procurement suspensions, pauses on specific purchases, and strict domestic-content or contracting requirements risk delaying acquisitions, slowing modernization, and creating short-term capability gaps.
Based on analysis of 15 sections of legislative text.
Introduced July 2, 2025 by Samuel Graves · Last progress July 23, 2025
Authorizes and reshapes U.S. Coast Guard operations and programs across many areas: sets FY2025–2029 funding and personnel targets, tightens acquisition and homeporting oversight, updates merchant mariner credentialing and port/traffic rules, expands authorities for unmanned systems and marine response, and strengthens vessel salvage and firefighting authorities. It also creates or retools senior organizational roles and oversight (including a Chief Prosecutor, Inspector General, and planning for a Secretary of the Coast Guard), and enacts extensive reforms to prevent, investigate, and retain records of sexual assault and harassment with long retention requirements and new reporting obligations. Creates many personnel, training, health, and retention programs: a college precommissioning initiative, behavioral health pilots and hires, tuition/sea‑duty incentives, Alaska airfare reimbursement policy, direct‑hire authority, maternity uniform allowance, and firefighter incentives for remote stations. Requires dozens of studies, GAO reviews, briefings, and public postings with many specific deadlines (30–270 days, annual reports, and multi‑year pilot expirations through 2029).