II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 802
To amend title 14, United States Code, to make appropriations for Coast
Guard pay in the event an appropriations Act expires before the enact-
ment of a new appropriations Act, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY27, 2025
Mr. C
RUZ(for himself, Ms. CANTWELL, Mr. SULLIVAN, Mr. WICKER, Ms.
B
ALDWIN, and Ms. BLUNTROCHESTER) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Appropriations
A BILL
To amend title 14, United States Code, to make appropria-
tions for Coast Guard pay in the event an appropriations
Act expires before the enactment of a new appropriations
Act, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Pay Our Coast Guard 4
Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6
Congress finds the following: 7
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•S 802 IS
(1) The Coast Guard is a military service and 1
a branch of the Armed Forces of the United States 2
at all times regardless of whether it operates as a 3
service in the Department of Homeland Security or 4
as a service in the Navy. 5
(2) Notwithstanding respective appropriations 6
and except as otherwise provided in law, members of 7
the Coast Guard should receive treatment equitable 8
to that of other members of the Armed Forces with 9
regard to pay and benefits. 10
SEC. 3. COAST GUARD PAY; CONTINUATION. 11
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Chapter 27 of title 14, United 12
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol-13
lowing: 14
‘‘§ 2780. Pay; continuation during lapse in appropria-15
tions 16
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—In the case of any period in 17
which there is a Coast Guard-specific funding lapse, there 18
are appropriated such sums as may be necessary— 19
‘‘(1) to provide pay and allowances to military 20
members of the Coast Guard, including the reserve 21
component thereof, who perform active service or in- 22
active-duty training during such period; 23
‘‘(2) to provide pay and benefits to qualified ci-24
vilian employees of the Coast Guard; 25
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‘‘(3) to provide pay and benefits to qualified 1
contract employees of the Coast Guard; and 2
‘‘(4) to provide for— 3
‘‘(A) the payment of a death gratuity 4
under sections 1475 through 1477 and 1489 of 5
title 10, with respect to members of the Coast 6
Guard; 7
‘‘(B) the payment or reimbursement of au-8
thorized funeral travel and travel related to the 9
dignified transfer of remains and unit memorial 10
services under section 481f of title 37, with re-11
spect to members of the Coast Guard; and 12
‘‘(C) the temporary continuation of a basic 13
allowance of housing for dependents of mem-14
bers of the Coast Guard dying on active duty, 15
as authorized by section 403(l) of title 37. 16
‘‘(b) C
OASTGUARD-SPECIFICFUNDINGLAPSE.— 17
For purposes of this section, a Coast Guard-specific fund-18
ing lapse occurs in any case in which— 19
‘‘(1) a general appropriation bill providing ap-20
propriations for the Coast Guard for a fiscal year is 21
not enacted before the beginning of such fiscal year 22
(and no joint resolution making continuing appro-23
priations for the Coast Guard is in effect); and 24
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‘‘(2) a general appropriation bill providing ap-1
propriations for the Department of Defense for such 2
fiscal year is enacted before the beginning of such 3
fiscal year (or a joint resolution making continuing 4
appropriations for the Department of Defense is in 5
effect). 6
‘‘(c) T
ERMINATION.—Appropriations and funds made 7
available and authority granted for any fiscal year for any 8
purpose under subsection (a) shall be available until 9
whichever of the following first occurs: 10
‘‘(1) The enactment into law of an appropria-11
tion (including a continuing appropriation) for such 12
purpose. 13
‘‘(2) The enactment into law of the applicable 14
regular or continuing appropriations resolution or 15
other Act without any appropriation for such pur-16
pose. 17
‘‘(3) The termination of availability of appro-18
priations for the Department of Defense. 19
‘‘(d) R
ATE FOROPERATIONS; APPLICABILITY TOAP-20
PROPRIATIONSACTS.—Appropriations made pursuant to 21
this section shall be at a rate for operations and to the 22
extent and manner that would be provided by the perti-23
nent appropriations Act. 24
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‘‘(e) CHARGE TOFUTUREAPPROPRIATIONS.—Ex-1
penditures made pursuant to this section shall be charged 2
to the applicable appropriation, fund, or authorization 3
whenever a bill in which such applicable appropriation, 4
fund, or authorization is enacted into law. 5
‘‘(f) A
PPORTIONMENT.—Appropriations and funds 6
made available by or authority granted under this section 7
may be used without regard to the time limitations for 8
submission and approval of apportionments set forth in 9
section 1513 of title 31, but nothing in this section may 10
be construed to waive any other provision of law governing 11
the apportionment of funds. 12
‘‘(g) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 13
‘‘(1) Q
UALIFIED CIVILIAN EMPLOYEE .—The 14
term ‘qualified civilian employee’ means a civilian 15
employee of the Coast Guard who the Commandant 16
determines is— 17
‘‘(A) providing support to members of the 18
Coast Guard or another Armed Force; or 19
‘‘(B) performing work as an excepted em-20
ployee or an employee performing emergency 21
work, as such terms are defined by the Office 22
of Personnel Management. 23
‘‘(2) Q
UALIFIED CONTRACT EMPLOYEE OF THE 24
COAST GUARD.—The term ‘qualified contract em-25
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ployee of the Coast Guard’ means an individual per-1
forming work under a contract who the Com-2
mandant determines is— 3
‘‘(A) providing support to military mem-4
bers or qualified civilian employees of the Coast 5
Guard or another Armed Force; or 6
‘‘(B) required to perform work during a 7
lapse in appropriations.’’. 8
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The analysis for chap-9
ter 27 of title 14, United States Code, is amended by add-10
ing at the end the following: 11
‘‘2780. Pay; continuation during lapse in appropriations.’’.
Æ
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