PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Referred to the Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation.
Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in House · Feb 24, 2025
Pay Our Coast Guard Parity Act of 2025
This bill provides continuing appropriations to the Coast Guard for pay and benefits when there is a Coast Guard-specific funding lapse.
Under the bill, a Coast Guard-specific funding lapse occurs when (1) a bill providing appropriations for the Coast Guard for a fiscal year has not been enacted before the beginning of that fiscal year, and no joint resolution providing continuing appropriations for the Coast Guard is in effect; and (2) a bill providing appropriations for the Department of Defense (DOD) for the fiscal year has been enacted before the beginning of the fiscal year, or a joint resolution providing continuing appropriation for DOD is in effect.
Showing the opening paragraphs of the official summary.
If a Coast Guard-specific funding lapse occurs, the bill provides appropriations to the Coast Guard for
pay and allowances for military members of the Coast Guard who perform active service or inactive-duty training;
pay and benefits for certain civilian employees and contract employees;
the payment of a death gratuity;
payments for travel related to funerals, the dignified transfer of remains, and unit memorial services; and
the temporary continuation of the basic allowance for housing for dependents of members of the Coast Guard dying on active duty.
The bill generally provides the appropriations to the Coast Guard until the earlier of
the enactment of specified Coast Guard appropriations legislation,
the termination of the availability of appropriations for DOD, or
two weeks after the beginning of the Coast Guard-specific funding lapse.
People & committees
Rep. Scholten, Hillary J. [D-MI-3] · D–MI
Legislative record
A procedural vote is different from passage. Passage in one chamber does not establish enactment. Explore the glossary.
Referred to the Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation.
Referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Primary sources
Text links open the official source. We also preserved the text version used in the PlainBill explanation below.
Source last updated: Apr 3, 2026. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
AI Conversation Starters
Choose a perspective, copy a prompt, and paste it into your preferred AI. Each prompt includes the bill version and available official source links, and asks for counterarguments as well as supporting evidence.
Analyze H.R.1542 as objectively as possible. Explain its main provisions, who would be affected, possible benefits and harms, implementation, exceptions, and uncertainties. Present the strongest arguments for and against it, and identify evidence needed to assess its public impact.
Examine H.R.1542 through a progressive lens, focusing on fairness, access, economic inequality, and effects on vulnerable communities. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and distinguish stated goals from demonstrated outcomes.
Examine H.R.1542 through a conservative lens, focusing on fiscal responsibility, institutional stability, federalism, and the scope of government. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and any provisions that challenge this perspective.
Examine H.R.1542 through a civil-liberties and limited-government lens. Consider individual rights, privacy, voluntary choice, accountability, and government power. Explain tradeoffs, possible safeguards, and the strongest counterarguments without assuming the proposal is beneficial or harmful.
PlainBill explanation
Based on the full Introduced in House · 2025-02-24 text. This explanation has not received human editorial review. This overview describes the proposal’s major provisions; it does not establish what its real-world effects would be.
The proposed Pay Our Coast Guard Parity Act of 2025 would fund certain Coast Guard pay and benefits during a qualifying funding gap when Defense Department funding is in place. It would cover military members performing specified service, qualifying civilian and contract workers, and certain payments following a member’s death. This temporary funding would last no more than two weeks and could end earlier. The supplied record does not establish that the proposal became law.
This Act may be cited as the Pay Our Coast Guard Parity Act of 2025.
In the case of any period in which there is a Coast Guard-specific funding lapse, there are appropriated such sums as may be necessary—
(1) to provide pay and allowances to military members of the Coast Guard, including the reserve component thereof, who perform active service or in-active-duty training during such period; (2) to provide pay and benefits to qualified civilian employees of the Coast Guard; (3) to provide pay and benefits to qualified contract employees of the Coast Guard;
the payment of a death gratuity under sections 1475 through 1477 and 1489 of title 10, with respect to members of the Coast Guard
a general appropriation bill providing appropriations for the Department of Defense for such fiscal year is enacted before the beginning of such fiscal year (or a joint resolution making continuing appropriations for the Department of Defense is in effect.
shall be available until whichever of the following first occurs:
The date that is 2 weeks after the beginning of the Coast Guard-specific funding lapse.
Source snapshot updated 2026-04-03T08:05:47Z. 2025-02-24: Referred to the Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation. 2025-02-24: Referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. 2025-02-24: Introduced in House
The bill’s findings describe the Coast Guard as a military service whether it operates under Homeland Security or the Navy. They state that Coast Guard members should receive equitable treatment on pay and benefits compared with other Armed Forces members, subject to exceptions in law. This is Congress’s stated position in the proposal.
Congress finds the following: (1) The Coast Guard is a military service and a branch of the Armed Forces of the United States at all times regardless of whether it operates as a service in the Department of Homeland Security or as a service in the Navy. (2) Notwithstanding respective appropriations and except as otherwise provided in law, members of the Coast Guard should receive treatment equitable to that of other members of the Armed Forces with regard to pay and benefits.
The proposed funding would apply when the fiscal year begins without an enacted annual Coast Guard funding bill and no temporary Coast Guard funding resolution is in effect, while an annual Defense Department funding bill was enacted before the year began or temporary Defense Department funding is in effect. It would not be an unconditional guarantee for every funding gap.
a Coast Guard-specific funding lapse occurs in any case in which— (1) a general appropriation bill providing appropriations for the Coast Guard for a fiscal year is not enacted before the beginning of such fiscal year (and no joint resolution making continuing appropriations for the Coast Guard is in effect); and (2) a general appropriation bill providing appropriations for the Department of Defense for such fiscal year is enacted before the beginning of such fiscal year (or a joint resolution making continuing appropriations for the Department of Defense is in effect.
The bill would add a new section 2780 to title 14 that directly provides the funding needed for the listed purposes during a qualifying gap. Military pay and allowances would cover Coast Guard members, including reservists, who perform active service or inactive-duty training during that period.
Chapter 27 of title 14, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following: 2780. Pay; continuation during lapse in appropriations
In the case of any period in which there is a Coast Guard-specific funding lapse, there are appropriated such sums as may be necessary— (1) to provide pay and allowances to military members of the Coast Guard, including the reserve component thereof, who perform active service or in-active-duty training during such period;
Civilian pay and benefits would cover Coast Guard employees whom the Commandant determines either support Coast Guard or other Armed Forces members, or perform work as an excepted employee or an employee performing emergency work. The latter terms use Office of Personnel Management definitions; the Commandant makes the eligibility determination.
(2) to provide pay and benefits to qualified civilian employees of the Coast Guard;
The term qualified civilian employee means a civilian employee of the Coast Guard whom the Commandant determines is— (A) providing support to members of the Coast Guard or another Armed Force; or (B) performing work as an excepted employee or an employee performing emergency work, as such terms are defined by the Office of Personnel Management.
Contract-worker pay and benefits would cover individual people working under contracts whom the Commandant determines either provide the specified support to military members or qualified civilian employees, or must work during a funding gap.
(3) to provide pay and benefits to qualified contract employees of the Coast Guard;
The term qualified contract employee of the Coast Guard means an individual performing work under a contract whom the Commandant determines is— (A) providing support to military members or qualified civilian employees of the Coast Guard or another Armed Force; or (B) required to perform work during a lapse in appropriations.
The funding would also cover specified payments following a Coast Guard member’s death: a death gratuity, meaning a payment following death; authorized funeral, remains-transfer and unit memorial travel; and temporary housing-allowance continuation for dependents of members who die on active duty. These payments remain tied to the cited existing laws.
(4) to provide for— (A) the payment of a death gratuity under sections 1475 through 1477 and 1489 of title 10, with respect to members of the Coast Guard; (B) the payment or reimbursement of authorized funeral travel and travel related to the dignified transfer of remains and unit memorial services under section 481f of title 37, with respect to members of the Coast Guard; and (C) the temporary continuation of a basic allowance of housing for dependents of members of the Coast Guard dying on active duty, as authorized by section 403(l) of title 37.
For each covered purpose, temporary funding and authority would end at the earliest of four events: enactment of funding for that purpose; enactment of the applicable funding measure or other law without funding for that purpose; the end of Defense Department funding availability; or two weeks after the Coast Guard funding gap begins.
Appropriations and funds made available and authority granted for any fiscal year for any purpose under subsection (a) shall be available until whichever of the following first occurs: (1) The enactment into law of an appropriation (including a continuing appropriation) for such purpose. (2) The enactment into law of the applicable regular or continuing appropriations resolution or other Act without any appropriation for such purpose. (3) The termination of availability of appropriations for the Department of Defense. (4) The date that is 2 weeks after the beginning of the Coast Guard-specific funding lapse.
The temporary funding would follow the spending rate, scope and manner that the relevant appropriations law would provide. Spending under this provision would be charged to the applicable funding account or authorization when legislation providing it becomes law.
Appropriations made pursuant to this section shall be at a rate for operations and to the extent and manner that would be provided by the pertinent appropriations Act.
Expenditures made pursuant to this section shall be charged to the applicable appropriation, fund, or authorization whenever a bill in which such applicable appropriation, fund, or authorization is enacted into law.
The funds could be used without following the deadlines in title 31, section 1513, for submitting and approving apportionments. The bill expressly states that it would not waive any other provision of law governing apportionment.
Appropriations and funds made available by or authority granted under this section may be used without regard to the time limitations for submission and approval of apportionments set forth in section 1513 of title 31, but nothing in this section may be construed to waive any other provision of law governing the apportionment of funds.
The supplied official-actions snapshot, updated April 3, 2026, records introduction in the House and referrals to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and its Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation on February 24, 2025. That snapshot supplies no later action.
Source snapshot updated 2026-04-03T08:05:47Z. 2025-02-24: Referred to the Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation. 2025-02-24: Referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. 2025-02-24: Introduced in House 2025-02-24: Introduced in House
A closer look
Reviewed version: Introduced in House · 2025-02-24. These findings describe provisions and who may benefit; they are not judgments of waste, corruption, or motive.
This review covers the supplied bill text. “None identified” does not rule out provisions in later versions or accompanying reports and disclosures.
Provisions outside the bill’s main subject, or policy changes attached to appropriations.
None identified in the reviewed text
No unrelated provision or separate policy rider was identified in the complete supplied introduced-text version. This conclusion does not establish absence in other versions or accompanying materials.
Spending directed to particular recipients or places outside ordinary competitive or formula-based allocation.
None identified in the reviewed text
No congressionally directed spending for particular recipients or places outside general program eligibility was identified in the complete supplied introduced-text version. This conclusion is limited to that text and does not establish absence in other versions or accompanying materials or resolve formal earmark status.
Narrow exceptions, exemptions, or preferential treatment that warrant a closer look.
None identified in the reviewed text
No materially narrow preferential carve-out beyond the program’s ordinary intended coverage and administration was identified in the complete supplied introduced-text version. This conclusion does not establish absence in other versions or accompanying materials.
Full text preserved for this analysis. Legislative record snapshot: Apr 3, 2026. How PlainBill uses AI