The U.S. Coast Guard has been unable to pay more than 6,000 utility bills during a Department of Homeland Security funding lapse, resulting in electricity, water and natural gas shutoffs at operational units, bases and housing worldwide. The shutdown has reached 75 days, the longest in U.S. history, with the service carrying over $300 million in unpaid obligations and $5.2 million in overdue utility bills.

Unlike the Army, Navy, Air Force, Space Force and Marines, which fall under the Department of Defense, the Coast Guard is the only armed service under DHS, leaving its nearly 45,000 active-duty members vulnerable when DHS funding lapses. In early April, DHS employees and Coast Guard personnel were paid for the first six weeks of the shutdown and the next pay period through executive action and existing funding flexibility. The service will run out of funding to pay personnel on May 1, with the first missed paychecks expected May 15.

In the past week, water outages hit duty stations in Port Huron, Michigan, and Station Channel Islands, California. Air Station Barbers Point in Kapolei, Hawaii, had its natural gas lines temporarily locked, and a power outage at a recruiting station in St. Louis, Missouri, forced officers to operate by flashlight until electricity was restored. Electricity was cut off at the residence of a Coast Guard rear admiral in New Orleans, forcing his family to drive to a hotel until service was restored. Nearly 1,000 Coast Guard housing units are at risk of electricity shutoffs, and 43% of housing units have invoices more than 30 days past due.

"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," Coast Guard Commandant Kevin Lunday said. "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. And they launch 24/7, 365 — and suddenly, the lights go out or they don't have water."

"It seems like a horror movie, but it's actually happening. It's almost unbelievable," 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."

Coast Guard personnel remain deployed worldwide, including roughly 300 in the Middle East and others in the Indo-Pacific boarding "ghost fleet" oil tankers. The service has canceled 30 national security exercises and halted training ahead of the World Cup and America 250.

Jessica Manfre, a Coast Guard spouse, said the impact has reached families on base. "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, I knew this shutdown was different," she said. "So many of our spouses work on base. So they miss three and a half paychecks in a world where you need two paychecks. That means sacrificing vacations, that means skimping, that means utilizing food pantries just to get by because those paychecks are suddenly all gone."

"The difference between children having a temper tantrum and Congress shutting us down is they're doing it on our backs," Manfre said. "We're the ones that are suffering. Congress continues to get paid. But we're sitting here waiting, wondering and suffering the consequences of their legislative game of chicken."