Fixing what isn't broken

California's two U.S. senators, Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer -- busy these past few months with saving the world from global warming and making sure their state gets its share of pork in the recent spate of spending bills -- have now turned their collective attention to the nation's Coast Guard.

Prompted by the recent oil spill in San Francisco Bay, they are sponsoring a bill to turn the Coast Guard into the air traffic controllers of the sea.

The Boxer-Feinstein Maritime Emergency Prevention Act would authorize -- not fund -- $20 million for the Coast Guard to upgrade their radar technology to guide ships in our nation's harbors the same way planes are guided at our airports.

The oil spill in San Francisco Bay occurred after a cargo ship went off-course and hit the Bay Bridge. The cleanup of the 58,000-gallon spill has cost more than $61 million so far.

An investigation of the accident has laid blame on a troubled harbor pilot who exercised bad judgment by taking a Chinese container ship -- with a captain and crew who spoke little English -- out to sea in dense fog at a high rate of speed.

It's obvious from their rhetoric justifying this expenditure that neither senator has much experience with boating. They cite the need for rules and procedures that already exist -- it's like trying to curb speeding on our highways by giving our police officers authority to write tickets.

The Coast Guard is understandably cool to the idea. The service has not recovered from the last "fix" forced on it by overzealous lawmakers. Efforts after 9-11 to beef up our coastal security have largely been a disaster. A modernization program is still struggling after billions were wasted in a quick-fix attempt at upgrading the ships and equipment of the perennially underfunded service. Forced to rely on private contractors, the Coast Guard ended up with leaking ships and flawed technology.

But thanks to the efforts of Adm. Thad Allen, who took over as commandant last year, the service is slowly coming back from this debacle. Allen is the man responsible for rescuing Katrina survivors after Homeland Security officials left them stranded on rooftops.

In hearings after the San Francisco incident, Allen and the Coast Guard were severely chastised by Boxer for not doing more to prevent oil spills. She called "unacceptable" Allen's reasoning that port and coastal security efforts had a higher priority for his limited resources.

What is unacceptable in all of this is Boxer's self-indulgent political grandstanding at the expense of one of our heroes. By all means, help the Coast Guard -- but throwing an unfunded mandate at it isn't help.