{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.reed.senate.gov/news/releases/reed-lauds-coast-guard-for-listening-to-public-and-suspending-buoy-removal-plan", "Reed Lauds Coast Guard for Listening to Public & Suspending Buoy Removal Plan", "2025-10-22", "2025", "2025-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "RI", "Jack Reed", "R000122", "www.reed.senate.gov", "jackreed", "https://www.reed.senate.gov/news/releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, DC \u2013 U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), a member of the Appropriations Committee, is lauding the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) for listening to the valid concerns of Rhode Islanders and suspending its proposal to remove over 300 buoys and other aids to navigation from Northeast waters.\n\n\u201cAfter receiving over 3,200 public comments, the Coast Guard will be conducting further analysis of the aids to navigation system. There will be no changes to ATON in relation to the proposal until further analysis is complete,\u201d the Coast Guard announced yesterday in a written statement.\n\nThe Coast Guard recently announced a revised modernization plan that scaled back its original controversial plan to phase out hundreds of physical coastal buoys and lateral marks across Coast Guard District North East (formerly First Coast Guard District). In Rhode Island, the Coast Guard was proposing to discontinue 20 buoys, down from 37 earlier this year.\n\nSenator Reed has been actively engaged on this issue. Earlier this year, he led initial efforts urging the Coast Guard to seek input from Rhode Island commercial and recreational boaters and harbormasters before removing any navigational markers in the water and later joined the entire northeast states delegation in a unified effort to push back and reconsider.\n\n\u201cThis is a win for our marine interests, including recreational and commercial boats. Rhode Islanders know these waters best and I appreciate the Coast Guard listening to their concerns, \u201c said Senator Reed. \u201cThis means all the buoys Rhode Islanders wanted to keep have been saved for the foreseeable future. I will continue to monitor this situation going forward to keep the public informed and work with the Coast Guard to ensure they continue proactive public outreach as part of any future decision-making process.\u201d\n\nThis coastal buoy project is just the first of USGC\u2019s three planned efforts to modernize and reduce Rhode Island\u2019s overall buoy constellation. Two other plans identify shallow water and harbor buoys that the Coast Guard is considering for discontinuation. In total, Rhode Island waters could see roughly 70 federally maintained aids to navigation cut, or roughly 17 percent of the total buoy constellation reduced in the coming years. The Coast Guard\u2019s overall plan can be viewed with this interactive map.\n\nThe Coast Guard maintains more than 5,600 aids to navigation in its Northeast district.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.reed.senate.gov/news/releases/reed-lauds-coast-guard-for-listening-to-public-and-suspending-buoy-removal-plan"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8859117515385151, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}