HOUSE OKS COAST GUARD BILL

WASHINGTON - The House agreed Wednesday to provide $9.4 billion
to the Coast Guard over the next two years, including almost $2
billion for drug interdiction.

The authorization bill, approved 424-7, would enable the Coast Guard
to operate an additional 15 patrol boats, eight cutters and several
maritime patrol aircraft and to open a law enforcement training center
in San Juan, Puerto Rico, said House Transportation Committee Chairman
Bud Shuster, R-Pa.

"We have the resources to interdict almost all the drugs if the Coast
Guard is given those resources," said Rep. Wayne Gilchrest, R-Md.,
chairman of the Coast Guard subcommittee. "Within five to seven years
I am convinced that we can interdict up to 85 percent of those drugs
if we are given the right resources."

The House boosted the president's request for fiscal year 2000 by some
$500 million to pay for anti-drug programs. The Coast Guard also is
responsible for aiding navigation operations, enforcing fisheries
laws, search and rescue and marine transportation safety.

The bill, which the Senate still must consider, also would provide $3
million in fiscal 2000 for design competition and $128 million in
fiscal 2001 for construction of a vessel to replace the Mackinaw, the
Coast Guard icebreaker that has been operating in the Great Lakes since 1944.

The Mackinaw allows ships, many supplying U.S. steel plants, to sail
later in the winter and earlier in the spring.