2026-04-30T06:00:06-0400 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
美国海岸警卫队已无力支付账单。这个军事部门目前已陷入美国历史上最长的停摆状态，长达75天，累计拖欠超过3亿美元的未结款项。由于数千项公用事业账单逾期未缴，总额达520万美元，全球范围内的执勤站点和军事住房正面临服务中断。
“这看起来像一部恐怖电影，但它真实发生了，几乎令人难以置信，”美国海岸警卫队司令凯文·伦迪海军上将在接受哥伦比亚广播公司新闻的独家采访时表示。
“突然之间，灯就灭了”
无日期照片：位于加利福尼亚州的海峡群岛站美国海岸警卫队基地，因国土安全部拨款中断期间未缴付公用事业账单，于2026年4月遭遇停水。美国海岸警卫队 摄
仅在过去一周，密歇根州休伦港和加利福尼亚州海峡群岛站的执勤站点就遭遇了停水。
存档照片：2026年3月21日，夏威夷卡波莱伊的巴伯斯角航空站因国土安全部停摆期间未缴付公用事业账单，天然气管道被临时封锁。海岸警卫队二级士官泰勒·罗伯逊 摄
夏威夷巴伯斯角航空站的天然气管道被临时封锁。密苏里州圣路易斯的一个征兵站停电，迫使工作人员只能依靠手电筒开展工作，直到电力恢复。
新奥尔良的一名海岸警卫队少将的住宅也被切断供电，迫使他的家人不得不驱车前往酒店暂住，直到服务恢复。该住宅是近1000座面临停电风险的海岸警卫队住房单元之一。全部门范围内，43%的住房单元的账单逾期已超过30天。
“这令人无法接受，”伦迪说。“我认为美国民众如果知道这一切正在发生，会感到无比愤怒，”伦迪补充道。“由于国土安全部未获得拨款，我们已有超过6000项公用事业账单未支付。现在，我们开始看到电力、水、天然气及其他服务被切断，这不仅影响到我们人员工作的作战单位和基地，还开始波及他们的居住场所。”
杰西卡·曼弗雷是一名拥有18年军属身份的海岸警卫队家属，她表示公用事业中断并非孤立事件，全美海岸警卫队家属都在大声表达他们的担忧。
无日期照片：杰西卡·曼弗雷与美国海岸警卫队高级士官斯科特·曼弗雷。杰西卡·曼弗雷 提供照片
“当我听说朋友们所在的站点被停水，他们不得不联系市政官员恳求恢复供水，因为账单没人付，”她回忆道，“我就知道这次停摆非同寻常。”
“这些站点的船员时刻待命，随时准备响应任何遇险水手或国家面临的任何威胁，”伦迪说。“他们全年无休、全天候待命——但突然之间，灯灭了，或者没水了。”
在许多情况下，只有在海岸警卫队人员致电供应商并恳求宽限后，公用服务才会恢复。
“大多数情况下，我们对接的……那些供应商还是会恢复服务，尽管他们拿不到钱，”伦迪说。“我不知道这种情况还能持续多久。”
我们的员工“怒不可遏”
自国土安全部拨款失效以来，此次停摆已持续75天。与通过国防部获得拨款的其他军事部门不同，海岸警卫队隶属于国土安全部，因此在国土安全部拨款中断时极易受影响。
“这令人极度沮丧，”伦迪说。“事实上，我想说我们的员工、我们的男女官兵及其家属都怒不可遏。”
“这不仅仅是信任破裂，”这位司令继续说道。“我们海岸警卫队的男女官兵，无论是现役、预备役还是文职人员，都挺身而出，宣誓支持和捍卫宪法。他们期望得到的回报仅仅是获得薪酬并提供服务。”他们不必“担心自己的家人能否得到照料，”伦迪补充道。
4月初，国土安全部部长马克韦恩·穆林表示，此前无薪工作的国土安全部雇员和海岸警卫队人员将获得停摆头六周及下一个薪资周期的薪酬，并表示这些款项通过行政行动和现有资金灵活性得以落实。如今，该笔资金已耗尽。
海岸警卫队将于5月1日耗尽支付人员薪资的资金，首批欠薪预计将于5月15日发放。
伦迪提到了阿拉斯加州凯奇坎的一名海岸警卫队文职人员的经历——他是一名机械师，也是资深员工——在过去的停摆期间，即使数周没有拿到薪水，他仍继续报到上班。他说，这名员工曾一度不得不卖掉卡车来偿还抵押贷款。
驻扎在北卡罗来纳州伊丽莎白顿的曼弗雷解释说，此次停摆让许多本就拮据的家庭处境更加艰难，尤其是那些仅靠一份收入维持生计，或夫妻双方都在该部门工作的家庭。
“我们很多配偶都在基地工作。在这个需要两份薪水才能维持生计的世界里，他们已经错过了三个半周期的薪资，”曼弗雷说。“这意味着要牺牲假期，要节衣缩食，要依靠食品银行勉强度日，因为这些薪资突然没了。”
部署在冲突地区，薪资却无着落
即便资金即将耗尽，海岸警卫队人员仍在全球各地部署——包括冲突地区。目前约有300人驻扎在中东，参与针对伊朗的战事，而驻扎在印太地区的其他人员则登上“幽灵舰队”油轮执行高风险任务。
“此时此刻，我们的人员身处危险之中，与其他军种一同开展军事行动，”伦迪说。“很难想象我们的一支武装部队竟然得不到拨款。这也彰显了我们男女官兵的奉献精神，即便身处危险之中，即便政府未能为国土安全部和海岸警卫队提供资金、确保他们获得薪酬，他们仍毅然挺身而出，完成任务。”
美国海岸警卫队近4.5万名现役人员在政府停摆期间格外脆弱，因为该部门是六大军种中唯一隶属于国土安全部的。陆军、海军、空军、太空军和海军陆战队均隶属于国防部。
“这真令人沮丧，因为我们的官兵和其他军种人员一样应征入伍。全国只有1%的人口服役，他们自愿奔赴任何地方——他们现在正在与伊朗作战，”曼弗雷说。“感觉这一切都无关紧要。我们好像无足轻重——因为我们不属于国防部或其他什么部门，我们似乎低人一等——这就是我的感受。”
这位司令解释说，薪资的不确定性已经推迟了其麾下人员及其家庭的重大人生决策。“就连医疗治疗，他们都担心能否支付共付费用，”伦迪感叹道。
对于国内的家属来说，这种反差十分鲜明。
曼弗雷说，她震惊地看到国会议员们休会期间，军属们却因经济上的不确定性取消了假期和孩子的夏令营活动。
这位两个孩子的母亲将国会的不作为比作孩童发脾气：“孩童发脾气和国会停摆之间的区别在于，他们是拿我们当筹码。”
“受苦的是我们，”曼弗雷说。“国会还能继续拿薪水。但我们坐在这里，等待着，承受着他们这场立法博弈的后果。”
正在“掏空”我们的战备能力
海岸警卫队已取消30项国家安全演习，并暂停了包括世界杯和美国建国250周年纪念活动在内的重大活动前的训练。
“这正在掏空我们的作战战备能力，”伦迪说。“我们仍在执行最高优先级的国家安全任务……但在维持我们的资产、巡逻艇、飞机、船只的能力方面，我们面临挑战，因为我们没有资金支付所需的所有维护工作的人员薪酬。”
“我对战备能力最大的担忧是他们是否还能集中精力，”他在提及男女官兵时说道。“他们是否准备好应对那些威胁，而不是担心自己能否撑到5月拿到薪资，以及家人是否需要更多援助。”
为了服从命令背负个人债务
每年约有三分之一的海岸警卫队人员需要搬迁，但由于停摆，搬迁预付款现已无法发放。
“现在他们拿不到这些预付款了，”伦迪说。“所以他们只能将数千美元的费用刷到信用卡上。他们耗尽了积蓄。他们申请了无力承担的贷款。”
当被问及他们是否为了服从命令而背负个人债务时，伦迪点头说道：“是的，确实如此。”
曼弗雷表示，家属们已经在为旅行季的到来提前做好准备。“我想如果没有资金，但海岸警卫队的任务必须继续，我们将被要求攒钱，或者必要时使用信用卡来垫付搬迁费用。”
“这就是现实，”她补充道。“他们中的许多人已经因为搬迁费用和尚未到账的学费报销而负债累累。”
商业和基础设施陷入停滞
影响不仅限于海岸警卫队基地。目前已有近1.9万份商船海员证书积压——约占整个劳动力的10%——同时还有约5000份医疗认证积压。
“这些商业海员对海上贸易和美国国旗船队至关重要，”伦迪说。“在美国努力重建海上实力的当下，我们无法壮大商业海员队伍，而这对国家安全至关重要。”
桥梁项目也面临风险，因为海岸警卫队在停摆期间暂停了许可审批。“在某些情况下，这会危及重建桥梁或新建桥梁的项目资金，”伦迪说。
每年约有5.4万亿美元的商品通过美国水道运输。“海岸警卫队负责确保这一切安全、有序地进行，”伦迪说。“因此这会影响到每一个美国人。”
“海岸警卫队正处于危机之中”
伦迪和曼弗雷都表示，停摆的长期影响已经在征兵和留任方面显现出来。“很难直视新兵的眼睛说，‘这就是适合你的职业。’”
当被问及她想对议员们说什么时，这位军属停顿了一下。“你们不能一方面说你们相信我们的军队……另一方面又投票反对为每天保卫这个国家的机构提供资金。你们做不到这一点。”
在停摆的第75天周三，这位司令表示，后果已不再是行政层面或抽象的了。“如今，海岸警卫队正处于危机之中。”
当被问及他的男女官兵还能在没有资金的情况下坚持多久时，伦迪停顿了一下。“嗯，我们都宣誓过，所有军人、国土安全部人员，都要支持和捍卫宪法。只要我们还有能力，我们就会坚持下去。但我们正处于前所未有的境地。”
塞吉·山下和凯瑟琳·坎农为本报道撰稿。
Coast Guard operating in “crisis” as DHS shutdown halts pay in May, cuts power, strains missions
2026-04-30T06:00:06-0400 / CBS News
The U.S. Coast Guard cannot pay its bills. The military branch – now 75 days into the longest shutdown in U.S. history – owes over $300 million in unpaid obligations. And with thousands of utility bills overdue, totaling $5.2 million, duty stations and military housing worldwide are facing service shutdowns.
“It seems like a horror movie, but it’s actually happening. It’s almost unbelievable,” Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Kevin Lunday told CBS News in an exclusive interview.
“Suddenly, the lights go out”
Undated photo: Station Channel Islands U.S. Coast Guard in California, was struck by water outages in April 2026 because of unpaid utility bills during DHS funding lapse. U.S. Coast Guard
In the past week alone, water outages hit duty stations in Port Huron, Michigan, and Station Channel Islands, California.
File: March 21, 2026. Air Station Barbers Point in Kapolei, Hawaii, had its natural gas lines temporarily locked because of unpaid utility bills during the DHS shutdown. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Tyler Robertson
Air Station Barbers Point, Hawaii, had natural gas lines temporarily locked. A power outage at a recruiting station in St. Louis, Missouri, forced officers to operate by flashlight until electricity could be restored.
Electricity was also cut off to the residence of a Coast Guard rear admiral in New Orleans, forcing his family to drive to a hotel until service was restored. That residence is one of nearly 1,000 Coast Guard housing units at risk of electricity shutoffs because of unpaid bills. Across the service, 43% of housing units have invoices more than 30 days past due.
“It’s unacceptable,” said Lunday. “I think the American people would be furious to know this is happening,” Lunday said. “We have over 6,000 utility bills that have been unpaid because DHS is not funded. And so, now we’re starting to see electricity, water, natural gas, other services shut off that are impacting not only our operational units and bases where our people work, but starting to impact where people live.”
Jessica Manfre, a Coast Guard spouse for 18 years, said the utility shutoffs aren’t isolated incidents, and Coast Guard families across the service have been vocal about their concerns.
Undated photo: Jessica Manfre and USCG Senior Chief Scott Manfre. Photo provided by Jessica Manfre
“When I heard that water is getting shut off at my friends’ stations and they’re having to call city officials to beg to have it turned back on because bills aren’t getting paid,” she recounted, “I knew this shutdown was different.”
“These are stations where our crews are standing by to respond at a moment’s notice to any Mariner in distress or any threat to the nation,” Lunday said. “And they launch 24/7, 365 — and suddenly, the lights go out or they don’t have water.”
In many cases, utilities are only restored after Coast Guard personnel call providers and beg for leniency.
“In most cases, the people we’re talking to … those providers are turning it back on, even though they’re not being paid,” Lunday said. “I don’t know how long that’s going to last.”
Our workforce is “furious”
The shutdown has now stretched 75 days since funding lapsed at the Department of Homeland Security. Unlike military branches that are funded through the Defense Department, the Coast Guard falls under DHS, so it’s vulnerable when DHS funding lapses.
“This is incredibly frustrating,” Lunday said. “In fact, I would say our workforce, our men and women and their families, are furious.”
“It’s more than a breach of trust,” the commandant continued. “Our Coast Guard men and women, whether they’re active duty or reserve military civilians, they’ve stepped forward and taken an oath to support and defend the Constitution. What they expect in return is just to be paid and provide services.” They don’t expect “to have to worry about whether their families are going to be taken care of,” Lunday added.
In early April, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said DHS employees who had been working without pay and the Coast Guard would be paid for the first six weeks of the shutdown and the next pay period, and said the payments were made possible by executive action and existing funding flexibility. Now, that funding is exhausted.
The Coast Guard will run out of funding to pay personnel on May 1, with the first missed paychecks expected May 15.
Lunday pointed to the experience of a civilian Coast Guard worker in Ketchikan, Alaska — a machinist and longtime employee — who continued reporting to work during the last shutdown even after going without pay for weeks. At one point, he said, the worker had to sell his truck to pay his mortgage.
Manfre, who is based in Elizabethtown, North Carolina, explained that the shutdown has made already tenuous situations worse for many families, particularly those relying on a single income or those with both wage earners working for the service branch.
“So many of our spouses work on base. So they miss three and a half paychecks in a world where you need two paychecks,” Manfre said. “That means sacrificing vacations, that means skimping, that means utilizing food pantries just to get by because those paychecks are suddenly all gone.”
Deployed in conflict zones, uncertain of pay
Even as funding runs out, Coast Guard personnel remain deployed worldwide — including in conflict zones. Roughly 300 are now stationed in the Middle East amid the war in Iran, while others stationed in the Indo-Pacific are boarding “ghost fleet” oil tankers in high-stakes missions.
“We have people in harm’s way at this hour, conducting military operations along with other military services,” Lunday said. “And it is hard to imagine that part of our armed forces would not be funded. And what it shows is the dedication of our men and women, that they’re still committed to stepping into the breach and getting that mission done, even in the face of danger, even while, even while the government is not working to fund the DHS and the Coast Guard and ensure they get paid.”
The U.S. Coast Guard’s nearly 45,000 active-duty members are uniquely vulnerable during government shutdowns because the branch is the only one of the six armed services that falls under DHS. The Army, Navy, Air Force, Space Force and Marines fall under the Defense Department.
“It is really disheartening because our members raise their hand just like every other service member. Only 1% of this country serves, and they willingly go wherever — they are fighting right now against Iran,” Manfre said. “It feels like it doesn’t matter. Like we don’t matter because we are not DOD or DOW. We’re somehow lesser — that’s how it feels.”
The commandant explained that uncertainty around pay has delayed major life decisions among his ranks and their families. “Even medical treatments, because they’re worried about making the co-pay,” Lunday exclaimed.
For families at home, that contradiction is stark.
Manfre said she was shocked to watch members of Congress go on recess while military families canceled vacations and summer camps for their own children because of the financial uncertainty.
The mother of two compared Congress’ inaction to a temper tantrum: “The difference between children having a temper tantrum and Congress shutting us down is they’re doing it on our backs.”
“We’re the ones that are suffering,” Manfre said. “Congress continues to get paid. But we’re sitting here waiting, wondering and suffering the consequences of their legislative game of chicken.”
“Hollowing out” our readiness
The Coast Guard has canceled 30 national security exercises and halted training ahead of major events, including the World Cup and America 250.
“It’s hollowing out our operational readiness,” Lunday said. “We are still performing our highest priority national security missions… but underneath our ability to continue to maintain the assets, our cutters, our aircraft, our boats, that’s challenged because we don’t have the funds necessary to pay people to do all of the maintenance work we need.”
“My biggest concern about readiness is whether or not their heads are in the game,” he said, referencing the men and women in uniform. “Whether they’re ready to face those threats, rather than worried about whether they’re going to get paid into May and whether their families are going to need more support.”
Going into personal debt to follow orders
About one-third of the Coast Guard relocates each year, but moving advances are unavailable right now because of the shutdown.
“Right now, they’re not getting those advances,” Lunday said. “So they’re putting those thousands of dollars on credit cards. They’re depleting their savings. They’re taking out loans that they can’t afford.”
When asked if they’re going into personal debt to follow orders, Lunday nodded. “Yes, that’s exactly right.”
Manfre said families are preparing for that reality ahead of travel season. “I would imagine if there are no funds, but the Coast Guard’s mission has to continue, we will be asked to save up or use our credit cards if we have to in order to front this move.”
“That is the reality,” she added. “Many of them are already in debt because of moving expenses and tuition reimbursement that’s not coming through.”
Commerce and infrastructure stalling
The effects extend beyond Coast Guard bases. There is now a backlog of nearly 19,000 merchant mariner credentials – representing roughly 10% of the entire workforce – along with roughly 5,000 medical certifications.
“These are the commercial mariners that are so vital to maritime commerce and the U.S. flag fleet,” Lunday said. “We can’t grow this commercial merchant mariner workforce at a time where America is trying to rebuild our maritime might, and that’s so vital to national security.”
Bridge projects are also at risk, since the Coast Guard has suspended permitting during the shutdown. “And in some cases, that’s putting project funding to rebuild bridges or build new bridges at risk,” Lunday said.
Roughly $5.4 trillion of commerce moves through U.S. waterways, every year. “And the Coast Guard’s responsible for making sure that happens safely and securely,” Lunday said. “So that impacts every American.”
“The Coast Guard is operating in a crisis”
Both Lunday and Manfre say the long-term effects of the shutdown are already being felt in recruitment and retention. “It is hard to look a recruit in the eye and say, ‘This is the career for you.’”
Asked about her message to lawmakers, the military spouse paused. “You can’t tell me in one breath that you, you believe in our military… and then vote against funding an agency that protects this country every day. You just can’t.”
On Wednesday, Day 75 of the shutdown, the commandant said the consequences are no longer administrative or abstract. “Today, the Coast Guard is operating in a crisis.”
Pressed on how much longer his men and women in uniform can operate without funding, Lunday paused. “Well, we’ve taken an oath, all of us in the military, in the DHS, to support and defend the Constitution. And we’re going to do it as long as we have the ability. But we’re in territory we haven’t been in before.”
Seiji Yamashita and Catherine Cannon contributed to this report.
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