The Congress pushes the redesign of the Coast Guard to stimulate the prohibition of drugs and migrants

The efforts to revise the Coast Guard are gaining ground on Capitol Hill – coinciding with the effort of the Trump administration to reorganize the service to fight against illegal migrant passages and drug attacks.

Multiple initiatives to update the Coast Guard are underway in the two chambers of the Congress and within the Ministry of Internal Security (DHS). All seek to raise the service so that it is tied with the other branches of the army which come under the Ministry of Defense, and better equip it to fight against the missions of prohibition of drugs and immigration.

The legislation of the Chamber authorizing the financing of the service until 2029 recently erased a vote of the Committee and aims to allow the service to carry out these missions, according to the representative Mike Ezell, R-Miss., Co-plan of the Act on the Authorization of the Coast Guard of 2025.

“The Coast Guard is very similar to the police,” Ezell told Fox News Digital on July 16. “It will fight the drug epidemic that we have entered in the country. Our coast guard officers and men and women will really be able to go.”

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Representative Mike Ezell, R-Miss., Leaves a meeting of the House Republican Conference at the Capitol Hill Club on Wednesday July 26, 2023.

Such missions only increase for the Coast Guard. DHS announced on July 15 that the service had seized a total of 242,244 pounds of cocaine since President Donald Trump took office in January. This is equivalent to an increase of more than 100% of crises compared to the same period in 2024 during the Biden administration, according to DHS.

Ezell, as well as the representatives Sam Graves, R-Mo., Rick Larsen, D-Wash., And Salud Carbajal, D-Calif., Introduced the law on the authorization of the Coast Guard on July 2, and the Transport and Infrastructure Committee of the Chamber adopted the measure on July 15, by opening the path so that the measurement goes to the soil of the Chamber.

One of the most important provisions of the legislation would establish a civilian secretary of the Coast Guard to align themselves more with the other branches of the army which are the matter of the Ministry of Defense. The Coast Guard falls under the jurisdiction of the DHS and has no high civil level directing the service.

The installation of a secretary of the service “will rationalize part of these administrative formalities that we have seen over the years, which has slowed down progress” because it or it will fall directly from the White House and the Congress – eliminating several layers of bureaucracy, according to Ezell.

“This person will help get things done,” said Ezell.

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Representative Mike Ezell, R-Miss., Is expressed during a press conference at the American Capitol to recognize the police as part of the police week on Wednesday, May 15, 2024.

“Coming from my history as a sheriff and police chief, I know the importance of coordinating with other agencies to do the work,” said Ezell. “When you have a person who is a point of contact that will put all the information from the president, the secretary of the DHS, it will be so much simpler.”

Before being elected to the House, Ezell was an agent of the police for more than 40 years, especially as a sheriff of the county of Jackson, Mississippi.

The Rick Scott republican senses of Florida and Shelley Moore Capito from Virginie-Western presented legislation in the Senate in April which would also establish a secretary of the Coast Guard.

“The creation of a secretary of coastal guard is an important step to ensure that the maritime security of our country is conducted with the strength and efficiency it deserves to ensure that it can fulfill its mission and adapt to all challenges,” said Scott in an April press release.

Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) heads for a lunch with the Senate Republicans at the US Capitol Building on June 01, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images)

“It is essential to have a dedicated secretary for the American Coast Guard in close collaboration with President Trump, our military leaders and the Ministry of Homeland Security for a coordinated and successful effort to ensure the security of the nation,” said Scott.

Efforts on Capitol Hill are also aligned with current initiatives at the Ministry of Internal Security to reform the service. In April, the Coast Guard unveiled its new 2028 force design plan to reorganize the organizational structure of the service, the staff, the acquisitions, the contracts and the technology, in accordance with the directives of Trump and the Secretary of Internal Security, Kristi Noem.

Transport planes of the passenger coast guard for cruise ships which had 300 miles off the coast of Hawaii

US Interior Security Secretary Kristi Noem is looking during an air visit to an HC-30J of the American Coast Guard Air Guard, Monday, March 17, 2025, in Kodiak, Alaska, United States

The proposal aims to strengthen the strength of the Coast Guard, which is currently made up of around 43,000 staff members in active service, and to determine which specialties must be reinforced to extend the training. The plan also provides for a series of changes to better align the coastal guard with the standards of the Ministry of Defense for the physical form, body composition and grooming.

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The Coast Guard, unlike other military services, does not apply fitness standards unless staff are attached to teams of law enforcement teams.

The initiative comes in response to the efforts of the Trump administration to combat illegal immigration and drug smuggling, a DHS manager familiar with the plan at Fox News Digital in April.

“We have made changes almost daily in the service to really continue to move forward,” the manager told Fox News Digital in April. “The objective of 2028 is that the transformation of the service will be completed by 2028.”