Coast Guard warns of missed paychecks, utility shutoffs as shutdown drags on

The Coast Guard is days away from running out of money to pay its personnel, and the strain is already showing in homes and stations from Michigan to Hawaii. More than 6,000 utility bills are unpaid across the service, overdue balances total $5.2 million, and nearly 1,000 housing units are at risk of electricity shutoffs as the shutdown reaches 75 days, the longest in U.S. history. Adm. Kevin Lunday said the service is “operating in a crisis” after water outages hit Port Huron, Michigan, and Station Channel Islands, California, natural gas lines were temporarily locked at Air Station Barbers Point in Kapolei, Hawaii, a recruiting station in St. Louis, Missouri, lost power and officers worked by flashlight, and a rear admiral’s family in New Orleans stayed in a hotel when their electricity went out.

Pay for Coast Guard personnel is set to run out on May 1, and the first missed paychecks are expected May 15, while the service says more than $300 million in unpaid obligations is piling up. In March testimony before the House Committee on Homeland Security, Adm. Thomas Allan said the shutdown was the service’s third of the fiscal year and that the Coast Guard had been without funding for 85 of the previous 176 days. He said civilian employees had already missed several paychecks, nearly 75% of civilian specialists in finance, contracting and information technology were furloughed, and the lapse was creating “profound and unacceptable financial strain” for personnel and families.

The funding gap has also hit operations. Allan said the Coast Guard had stopped processing merchant mariner credentials, creating a backlog of more than 16,000 applications that was growing by about 300 a day, and had failed to pay more than 5,000 utility accounts. He said the service had also stopped paying vendors who feed recruits at Cape May, New Jersey, and had halted fisheries enforcement operations and routine maritime patrols. The Coast Guard says missions needed to protect life, property and national security continue, but non-emergency operations have been suspended.

The financial drag is not just immediate. Allan estimated in late March that the service had already incurred more than $200 million in unpaid bills and said that, if the shutdown had ended then, it would have taken until July 3 to catch up because the Coast Guard needs two and a half days to recover for every day spent in shutdown. Families are trying to bridge the gap with support from the Coast Guard Foundation and Coast Guard Mutual Assistance, which offers interest-free loans of up to one paycheck after taxes, capped at $6,000. Lunday said crews should not have to worry about rent or groceries while responding to emergencies, a warning that the shutdown is now reaching where Coast Guard people live as well as where they work.