Press Releases

U.S. Congressman Garret Graves (South Louisiana) announced the passage of H.R. 7659, the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2024 in the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill provides vital resources required to maintain the operations and critical missions of the United States Coast Guard (USCG) and includes several key priorities championed by Graves to protect our nation. 

“The Gulf of Mexico is South Louisiana’s home field, and the United States Coast Guard is our offensive line,” said Congressman Graves. “On the high seas and our nearshore waters, they carry out the mission of a dozen federal agencies, offices and bureaus. The Coast Guard has played a vital role in protecting our waters, national security, marine safety, energy resources, fisheries, and maritime border from bad foreign actors since the birth of our country. We must ensure their ability to keep doing so, especially against the backdrop of the worsening immigration crisis and growing threats from foreign adversaries. There are some big wins in here for Louisiana and the nation and I’m proud to have contributed to the fight for robust protection of America’s maritime borders and our marine resources.”

The legislation includes several of Graves’ priorities, including:

• Provisions that guarantee fair competition for the U.S. workforce, including our offshore service industry, against foreign-flagged and crewed vessels.
• Ensuring that the tanker vessels crucial to sustaining the American energy economy can fulfill international energy supply demands while safeguarding our maritime environment.
• Authorizing the deployment of two more Louisiana-built Fast Response Cutters, which senior USCG officials have lauded as an “operational game changer” and significant enhancement to effectiveness.
• Authorizing an extra Polar Security Cutter to counteract threats from foreign adversaries in the Arctic.
• Providing the USCG with the necessary resources to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing – which helps to sustain our domestic fisheries and ensure our fishers’ global competitiveness – and safeguard our maritime borders from illicit smuggling, particularly drugs such as fentanyl.