5. Department of Homeland Security · Minor · Needs Congress
Accelerate Coast Guard facility expansion and cutter basing in American Samoa
Printed page 156 5. Department of Homeland Security
“Expansion of facilities in American Samoa and basing of cutters there is one clear step in this direction and should be accelerated; looking to free association states (Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands) for enhanced and persistent presence, assuming adequate congressional funding, is another such step.”
What has happened
- Not started
Nothing accelerates Coast Guard facility expansion or cutter basing in American Samoa. The Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2025 does not mention American Samoa; what it does contain is section 7118, requiring an annual plan for Coast Guard operations in the Pacific and a study on the feasibility of additional port visits, deployments and fast response cutter availability in the Northern Mariana Islands in support of Operation Blue Pacific - a different territory and a study rather than construction. No appropriation in Public Law 119-21, Public Law 119-60 or Public Law 119-86 is directed at American Samoa facilities, and the free association states (Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands) appear in no enacted Coast Guard basing provision.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
A Requires-Congress ask; the Quote itself conditions the free-association half on “adequate congressional funding”.
One negative search covered Chapter 5’s asks on pp. 151-158. “American Samoa” appears nowhere in Division G of Public Law 119-60; the four American Samoa bills in Congress (H.R. 399, H.R. 5640, H.R. 5976, H.R. 6158) concern tax credits, criminal justice support and nationality, and all are in committee.
Section 7118 is genuinely adjacent - Congress legislated on Pacific presence, just not on this - and Congress legislating nearby does not count as progress on the ask.
- Action
- expand
- Object
- Coast Guard facilities and cutter basing in American Samoa
- ID
- 397