Webster Files Bipartisan Bill Protecting Coast Guard Members from Sexual Violence

Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee Chairman Daniel Webster (R-FL) and Subcommittee Ranking Member Salud Carbajal (D-CA) have jointly introduced legislation to protect Coast Guard members from sexual violence. 

The proposed legislation was drafted after the Coast Guard published a report detailing the service’s mishandling of reports of sexual misconduct. 

The report was the final product of Operation Fouled Anchor.

Operation Fouled Anchor, initiated in 2014, reviewed the Coast Guard Academy’s response to allegations of rape, assault, and similar forms of misconduct.

The report found the Coast Guard had handled such allegations inconsistently and ineffectively. 

However, until 2023, the Coast Guard did not publicly reveal Operation Fouled Anchor’s findings. 

In 2023, the Coast Guard was prompted to publicize the report due to media pressure. 

Following the report’s publication,  Admiral Linda Fagan, Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, ordered a 90-day accountability and transparency review to examine current practices for preventing and responding to allegations of sexual misconduct. 

Admiral Fagan’s review produced sundry recommendations for the Coast Guard’s policies, and Fagan subsequently executed over 30 directives to implement such recommendations.

Representative Webster and Carbajal’s legislation would codify Fagan’s recommendation and expand upon them to enact increased standards of accountability and transparency.

“I am pleased that the current Commandant has publicly issued Directed Actions along with the release of her Accountability and Transparency Report,” said Webster.

“The Coast Guard Protection and Accountability Act will make sure those actions are carried out and provide the Coast Guard with the authorities needed to implement much needed change.”

The Act would require the Coast Guard annually provide a report to Congress for the next three years describing how the service is implementing the directives contained in Fagan’s review. 

If passed, the bill would also initiate a Government Accountability Office (GAO) study on the implementation efforts of Fagan’s directed actions.

The GAO study would also surveil the effectiveness of those efforts, and propose additional measures the Coast Guard should implement.