THE administration’s push to put all federal programs now administered by the U.S. Coast Guard into a new Department of Homeland Security – especially its boating safety program – is a mistake, says the half-million-member Boat Owners Association of The United States.

Recently approved by the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, the proposal would move the entire Coast Guard, including its boating safety, boat defect, factory inspection, education and state safety grants programs into a new agency whose sole mission will be protecting America’s security and combating terrorism.

“These consumer safety programs which are essential to the well being of some 70 million Americans who go boating every year will get lost and buried in the new Homeland Security Department. They will also be a source of distraction from the new agency’s core mission,” said BoatU.S. Government Affairs Director, Michael Sciulla.

In fact, BoatU.S. believes that budget-strapped Coast Guard operations may well benefit by moving from the U.S. Department of Transportation to the new Department of Homeland Security, where presumably more money will be available to refurbish its aging fleet of ships, aircraft as well as its coastal communications system.

“While these new assets may well create a new Coast Guard that is much better able to perform its on-the-water search and rescue mission, you don’t need to put scarce uniformed Coast Guard military officers in a city office to make public policy decisions on recreational boating safety matters when they could be defending our coasts and saving lives at sea,” added Sciulla.

Since recreational boating fatalities constitute the second largest number of transportation related deaths, BoatU.S. contends that the Coast Guard’s boating safety program should be placed in a new maritime safety office in the U.S. Department of Transportation which has similar offices for auto, aviation, truck and rail safety.

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Kayne Robinson, the former Des Moines assistant police chief who has served as the National Rifle Association’s first vice president since 1998, tells the Des Moines Register he expects to be elected NRA’s president and continue Charlton Heston’s legacy of aggressively campaigning for pro-gun political candidates in April 2003 when Heston’s term expires and the organization meets to choose a successor.

Last week, Heston announced he is suffering from a debilitating disease.

“My physicians have recently told me that I may have a neurological disorder whose symptoms are consistent with Alzheimer’s,” Heston said. “For now, I’m not changing anything; I’ll insist on work when I can, the doctors will insist on rest when I must. If you see a little less spring in my step, if your name fails to leap to my lips, you’ll know why. And if I tell you a funny story for the second time, please, laugh anyway.”

A spokesperson for the NRA told Fox News, “Mr. Heston has every intention of serving out his term as NRA president. ”