Coast Guard Polar Icebreaker Modernization: Background and Issues for Congress

Ronald O'Rourke
Specialist in Naval Affairs

Coast Guard polar icebreakers perform a variety of missions supporting U.S. interests in polar regions. The Coast Guard’s two existing heavy polar icebreakers—Polar Star and Polar Sea— have exceeded their originally intended 30-year service lives. Polar Star was placed in caretaker status on July 1, 2006. Congress in FY2009 and FY2010 provided funding to repair it and return it to service for an additional 7 to 10 years of service; the repair work was completed and the ship was reactivated on December 14, 2012.

On June 25, 2010, the Coast Guard announced that Polar Sea had suffered an unexpected engine casualty; the ship was unavailable for operation after that. The Coast Guard placed Polar Sea in commissioned, inactive status on October 14, 2011. Section 222 of the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2012 (H.R. 2838/P.L. 112-213 of December 20, 2012) prohibits the Coast Guard from removing any part of Polar Sea and from transferring, relinquishing ownership of, dismantling, or recycling the ship until it submits a business case analysis of the options for and costs of reactivating the ship and extending its service life to at least September 30, 2022, so as to maintain U.S. polar icebreaking capabilities and fulfill the Coast Guard’s high latitude mission needs, as identified in the Coast Guard’s July 2010 High Latitude Study.

The Coast Guard’s third polar icebreaker—Healy—entered service in 2000. Compared to Polar Star and Polar Sea, Healy has less icebreaking capability (it is considered a medium polar icebreaker), but more capability for supporting scientific research. The ship is used primarily for supporting scientific research in the Arctic.

The Coast Guard’s proposed FY2013 budget includes $8 million in acquisition funding to initiate survey and design activities for a new polar icebreaker. The Coast Guard’s Five Year Capital Investment Plan includes an additional $852 million in FY2014-FY2017 for acquiring the ship.

The Coast Guard anticipates awarding a construction contract for the ship “within the next five years” and taking delivery on the ship “within a decade.” The project to design and build a polar icebreaker is a new acquisition project initiated in the FY2013 budget.

With the reactivation of Polar Star, the operational U.S. polar icebreaking fleet consists of one heavy polar icebreaker (Polar Star) and one medium polar icebreaker (Healy). The new polar icebreaker for which initial acquisition funding is requested in the FY2013 budget would replace Polar Star at about the time Polar Star’s 7- to 10-year reactivation period ends.

Potential issues for Congress regarding Coast Guard polar icebreaker modernization include the numbers and capabilities of polar icebreakers the Coast Guard will need in the future; the disposition of Polar Sea; whether the new polar icebreaker initiated in the FY2013 budget should be funded with incremental funding (as proposed in the Coast Guard’s Five Year Capital Investment Plan) or full funding in a single year, as normally required under the executive branch’s full funding policy; whether new polar icebreakers should be funded entirely in the Coast Guard budget, or partly or entirely in some other part of the federal budget, such as the Department of Defense (DOD) budget, the National Science Foundation (NSF) budget, or both; whether to provide future icebreaking capability through construction of new ships or service life extensions of existing polar icebreakers; and whether future polar icebreakers should be acquired through a traditional acquisition or a leasing arrangement.


Date of Report: March 26, 2013
Number of Pages: 67
Order Number: RL34391
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Health Care for Rural Veterans: The Example of Federally Qualified Health Centers

Elayne J. Heisler
Analyst in Health Services

Sidath Viranga Panangala
Specialist in Veterans Policy

Erin Bagalman
Analyst in Health Policy

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is statutorily required to provide VA-enrolled veterans with access to timely and quality medical care. It does so through the nation’s largest integrated health care delivery system. Despite the existence of this system, Congress remains concerned that veterans, in particular rural veterans, may not be able to access VA health services. Among veterans enrolled in VA health care, 41% reside in rural or highly rural areas. Compared to urban veterans, rural veterans have higher prevalence of physical illness, lower health-related quality of life, and greater health care needs. Congress has demonstrated continuing interest in modifying VA delivery of care to expand access for rural veterans. Such interest has been demonstrated through report language, statutory mandates, appropriation of funds, and authorization of demonstration projects. In particular, Congress has encouraged the VA to collaborate with federally qualified health centers (FQHCs)—facilities that receive federal grants and are required to be located in areas where there are few providers, particularly rural areas.

The VA is generally a provider—rather than a financer—of health care services; however, the VA has statutory authority to reimburse non-VA providers for services that are not readily available within the VA’s integrated health care delivery system. VA facilities may consider contracting with outside providers to provide services to rural veterans. One type of facility that the VA has contracted with in the past are FQHCs. Although FQHCs are one type of facility that the VA can collaborate with, FQHCs may be candidates for VA collaboration because, as a condition of receiving a federal grant, they must meet certain requirements that include providing specific types of services, maintaining certain records, and meeting certain quality standards. These requirements, and the leverage that the federal government may have as a funding source, may facilitate VA-FQHC collaboration to provide care to veterans in rural areas.

The report discusses four scenarios under which an FQHC might provide health care services to veterans: (1) without reimbursement from the VA, (2) under the VA’s fee basis care program, (3) under a contract for specific services, or (4) as a contractor-operated community-based outpatient clinic (a type of outpatient VA facility). Each of these scenarios is discussed because the scenario used for collaboration affects the considerations that may arise.

Some considerations that may arise during attempts to increase VA-FQHC collaboration include the costs of care to an FQHC, the VA, and veterans; the capacity of an FQHC to serve veterans in addition to its existing patients; and the compatibility of the VA and an FQHC in terms of the services available, quality initiatives, accreditation, and use of electronic health records.

To address these considerations and encourage VA-FQHC collaboration, there are a number of policy levers that Congress might use. These include oversight, an incentive fund, directed spending, statutory mandates, and watchful waiting. Congress may also consider a combination of these levers.

This report discusses considerations that may arise during possible attempts to increase VAFQHC collaboration, and describes policy levers Congress might use to encourage VA-FQHC collaboration. These approaches might also be employed to encourage collaboration between the VA and other types of facilities that may serve rural veterans.


Date of Report: April 3, 2013
Number of Pages: 30
Order Number: R43029
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Battles of Hannibal: A Leader for Today

This study reviews the life, battles, and campaigns of the Carthaginian General Hannibal while attempting to illustrate the leadership values and primary characteristics of Hannibal that contributed to his success on the battlefield. Hannibal won extraordinary victories against his opponents (primarily Romans), and usually against overwhelming odds, with a mercenary army composed of many different nations.

This study demonstrates that Hannibal was one of the "Great Captains" of the past and, more importantly, that studying his life today has great relevance for modern soldiers. The leadership values of Hannibal are core values that to one extent or another can be found in all great leaders of both the past and present.

This study concludes by identifying Hannibal's finest leadership values and characteristics, then demonstrating their relevancy by comparing them with current United States Army doctrine, and by showing these values through examples in the lives of nineteenth century and twentieth century U. S. military leaders. Thus the purpose of this study is to demonstrate that the lives of leaders, such as Hannibal (who lived 2,000 years ago), have relevance to military leaders today and the application of their leadership values and characteristics can produce success on the battlefield.

Date of Report: March 19, 2013
Number of Pages: 165
Order Number: G1328
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Cluster Munitions: Background and Issues for Congress

Andrew Feickert
Specialist in Military Ground Forces

Paul K. Kerr
Analyst in Nonproliferation

Cluster munitions are air-dropped or ground-launched weapons that release a number of smaller submunitions intended to kill enemy personnel or destroy vehicles. Cluster munitions were developed in World War II and are part of many nations’ weapons stockpiles. Cluster munitions have been used frequently in combat, including the early phases of the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Cluster munitions have been highly criticized internationally for causing a significant number of civilian deaths, and efforts have been undertaken to ban and regulate their use. The Department of Defense (DOD) continues to view cluster munitions as a military necessity but has instituted a policy to reduce the failure rate of cluster munitions to 1% or less by 2018.

There are two major international initiatives to address cluster munitions: the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) and negotiations under the U.N. Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW). The Obama Administration has reiterated U.S. opposition to the CCM, which entered into force August 1, 2010, but participated in negotiations regarding cluster munitions under the CCW.


Date of Report: March 20, 2013
Number of Pages: 11
Order Number: RS22907
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Navy Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) Program: Background and Issues for Congress

Ronald O'Rourke
Specialist in Naval Affairs

The Aegis ballistic missile defense (BMD) program, which is carried out by the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and the Navy, gives Navy Aegis cruisers and destroyers a capability for conducting BMD operations. Under MDA and Navy plans, the number of BMD-capable Navy Aegis ships is scheduled to grow from 24 at the end of FY2011 to 36 at the end of FY2018.

Under the Administration’s European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA) for European BMD operations, BMD-capable Aegis ships are operating in European waters to defend Europe from potential ballistic missile attacks from countries such as Iran. On October 5, 2011, the United States, Spain, and NATO jointly announced that, as part of the EPAA, four BMD-capable Aegis ships are to be forward-homeported (i.e., based) at Rota, Spain, in FY2014 and FY2015. BMDcapable Aegis ships also operate in the Western Pacific and the Persian Gulf to provide regional defense against potential ballistic missile attacks from countries such as North Korea and Iran. On March 15, 2013, the Department of Defense (DOD) announced that it is dropping the fourth and final phase of the EPAA and restructuring the development program for the Aegis SM-3 Block IIB interceptor missile that was to be deployed under that phase.

The Aegis BMD program is funded mostly through MDA’s budget. The Navy’s budget provides additional funding for BMD-related efforts. MDA’s proposed FY2013 budget requests a total of $2,303.0 million in procurement and research and development funding for Aegis BMD efforts, including funding for Aegis Ashore sites that are to be part of the EPAA. Issues for Congress for FY2013 include:

• the reduction under the proposed FY2013 budget in the ramp-up rate for numbers of BMD-capable Aegis ships over the next few years; 
• the cost effectiveness and U.S. economic impact of shifting four Aegis ships to Rota, Spain; 
• U.S. vs. European naval contributions to European BMD; 
• the lack of a target for simulating the endo-atmospheric (i.e., final) phase of flight of China’s DF-21 anti-ship ballistic missile; 
• the capability of the SM-3 Block IIB Aegis BMD interceptor; and 
• concurrency and technical risk in the Aegis BMD program.

Date of Report: March 27, 2013
Number of Pages: 102
Order Number: RL33745
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