Senate Republican holds Coast Guard promotions hostage to force Trump admin's hand

A Senate Republican refused to get on board with a vote to approve hundreds of Coast Guard promotions as a way to force the Trump administration to resolve an issue with an anonymous Florida shipbuilder.

Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida blocked a vote on Tuesday that would immediately approve the promotion of a tranche of Coast Guard personnel, Politico reported. Votes on a package of personnel promotions usually pass with little fuss or opposition, Politico noted. Majority Leader John Thune told reporters a day earlier that the promotions were a priority for the Trump administration.

“Since Trump came into office [I've been talking] about trying to resolve an issue they have with a boat builder in Florida. And they … won’t put the time in to get a result,” Scott said in an interview. "You have to get this resolved."

Scott, a Navy veteran, avoided specifics about the issue or which shipbuilder was in question. Politico reported Scott has had friendly connections to the Eastern Shipbuilding Group, based in Panama City, Florida, going back to his days as the governor of the Sunshine State.

The Eastern Shipbuilding Group had a $10 billion contract to build cutters, or fast patrol boats, for the Coast Guard dating back to 2016. ESG stopped work on those cutters in November because it was losing money, U.S. Naval Institute News reported. The Department of Homeland Security sank plans to build two of those cutters in July, calling the company "slow to deliver" and the contract "wasteful." In 2016, Scott congratulated the company as an "underdog shipbuilder" that would "grow jobs," local media reported at the time.

According to Politico, an anonymous source said that Scott's decision to block the promotions was related to the stalled cooperation with ESG.