U.S. Coast Guard Commandant and Senator Nelson tour Eastern Shipbuilding

PO3 (Join to see) - So, you are telling me the USCG isn't a branch of the military. Got it, that explains a lot. Just screwing with you, bud. SOP for the blue water Navy.

USCG is unique in that it is both a military service and a federal law enforcement agency. Since 1790 it has served both functions quite well, especially during the few years the Navy was disbanded. The USCG must stay outside the DOD.
Ice breakers perform many duties vital to our national defense and foreign maritime policies. More need to be built, but our shipbuilding industry very costly. Labor unions, regulations, and highly bureaucratic contracting procedures hamper new construction projects. The economic impact for keeping northern sea lanes open for freighters far exceed the cost of the breakers. Hopefully, the new Trump administration will understand this.

LTJG Richard Bruce - Thanks for the primer. Did you read my opening comment, aside from the inter service banter? This was the basis for my comment.

https://www.uscg.mil/acquisition/icebreaker/

Posse Comitatus was actually enacted to block the Army from direct law enforcement. It is applied to the other DoD branches as a matter of practice. It would be easy enough to have the Coast Guard under DoD and still exempt them from it. There are some other sticky issues, such as the farce of using Coast Guard cutters as a less aggressive presence in sensitive cases than a Navy ship would be. It really doesn't matter, at this point what department the service falls under. Everyone has already caught onto it.