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by Grum9 517 days ago
The "U.S. Coast Guard was formed by a merger of the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service and the U.S. Life-Saving Service on 28 January 1915" (wiki).

The US Department of Homeland Security "began operations on March 1, 2003, after being formed as a result of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, enacted in response to the September 11 attacks" (wiki).

So are you saying that for 78 years of its existence, the USCG had no "plan for when large fishing vessels get into trouble, and indeed a plan to stop them getting into trouble" until the DHS assembled a (assuming this is a thing) "National Commercial Fishing Safety Advisory Committee"? You dont think theres any redundancy? That just maybe bureaucracy cant help but to expand forever every time someone with a title has a question that cant be answered immediately by someone standing in the room, they have to create a committee so they can have someone on speed dial? If the coast guard doesnt have plans for this, one wonders what the coast guard does all day.
2 comments
sympil 517 days ago
It’s common for organizations to reorganize. It’s quite possible that the committee was formed for purposes of centralization and efficacy. It’s also possible it was government overreach. What are the justifications for axing a committee or regulations and are those justifications correct?
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kjellsbells 516 days ago
Especially given the genesis of DHS, it would not be surprising if that agency vacuumed up a great deal of prior teams, groups, etc., in the name of national anti terrorism. Cabinet level agencies tend to expand over time as DC turf wars ebb and flow.

It could just as easily have been, for example, that back in 2002 someone realized USCG was involved in drug and weapons interdiction in the waters off Florida, swept them up into DHS under anti terror laws, and got the fishing boat thing as a freebie. It does not mean that USCG were not doing anything on the latter until DHS showed up.

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atombender 516 days ago
What you say might be true. But what do you actually know about this committee and their work? Chesterton's Fence is a good rule of thumb here. As an outsider, you might look at this and assume it's a superfluous service. But until you've figured out why it exists, it seems premature to assume it shouldn't exist.
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