Members of the U.S. Coast Guard are working without pay during the government shutdown, and the Coast Guard Academy in New London will remain open.
NBC News reports about 42,000 members of the Coast Guard remain on duty, but they’ll likely miss next week’s scheduled paycheck.
The Coast Guard is part of the Department of Homeland Security, rather than the Department of Defense, which is still being funded.
The Coast Guard Sector Long Island Sound in Connecticut, New York, and Rhode Island has 478 active duty members and 13 civilian employees.
Most of the civilian workforce has been furloughed without pay.
“The Coast Guard will continue activities authorized by law that provide for national security, or that protect life and property. The Coast Guard may stop or curtail some specific mission activities that do not fall into those categories. Activities like the issuance or renewals of merchant documentation and licensing, fisheries enforcement patrols, and routine maintenance to aids to navigation are also delayed and/or curtailed, as are some administrative functions, training, and maintenance activities to our surface and aviation fleets,” wrote Petty Officer Michael White, a spokesperson for the First Coast Guard District.
White also explained that the Coast Guard Academy in New London will remain open.
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“Unlike other armed forces, the Coast Guard Academy is the primary officer accession program for the Coast Guard, and any delays in the curriculum have major impacts on officer assignments and continuity of Coast Guard operations,” he wrote in an email to NBC Connecticut.
