U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, both Connecticut Democrats, last week joined a bipartisan group of 23 senators in demanding that a proposed $1.3 billion cut to the U.S. Coast Guard be rejected.

According to reports, the 2018 Presidential Budget Request now being prepared will suggest a wholesale slash amounting to almost 12 percent of the service’s budget.

“We are concerned that the Coast Guard would not be able to maintain maritime presence, respond to individual and national emergencies, and protect our nation’s economic and environmental interests,” the senators said in a letter to Office of Management and Budget Administrator Mick Mulvaney.

“The proposed reduction…would directly contradict the priorities articulated by the Trump Administration,” the senators said. “We urge you to restore the $1.3 billion dollar cut to the Coast Guard budget, which we firmly believe would result in catastrophic negative impacts to the Coast Guard and its critical role in protecting our homeland, our economy and our environment.”

The senators pointed out that in 2016 the Coast Guard seized 469,270 pounds of illegal drugs, secured 95,000 miles of coastline and prevented thousands of cases of illegal immigration.