WASHINGTON (AP) – The Coast Guard has given members of Congress a nearly $1 billion wish list of spending proposals that were not included in President Bush’s 2006 budget, including more than $637 million to upgrade deteriorating ships and helicopters.

The two-page list represents the first time the Coast Guard has been free to provide Congress with a list of priorities not funded in Bush’s request for $6.9 billion for the guard. And it underscores conclusions in two studies that said the Coast Guard has neither the equipment nor the funding to meet the country’s national security needs in the post-Sept. 11 era.

Coast Guard Adm. Thomas H. Collins submitted the wish list to Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., who chairs the Appropriations Committee’s Homeland Security Subcommittee. Until this year, the Coast Guard was prohibited from making additional budget requests.

In recent testimony to congressional committees, Collins said Coast Guard cutters are suffering major equipment problems more than 50 percent of the time. He also said “much work needs to be done to reduce America’s vulnerabilities to terrorism and other maritime security threats.”

Bush’s proposed budget includes $966 million for the current 20-year plan to repair and replace deteriorating aircraft and ships. But studies by Rand Corp., a nonprofit think tank, and the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general said the replacement program must be accelerated to meet terror threats.

Collins’ wish list would add $637 million to that effort, bringing the total for that effort alone to about $1.6 billion.

Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., and co-chairman of the House’s Coast Guard Caucus, said it will be difficult for Congress to find the additional money, but added, “This is a national security need. The Coast Guard has been underfunded for far too long.”

The wish list totals $919 million, and includes $62.6 million to maintain existing ships and aircraft; $70 million for expanded patrols by the maritime security team; nearly $60 million for improvements to Coast Guard shore facilities, mostly on the East and West coasts; and $31 million for homeland security programs including efforts to track dangerous cargo.

It also calls for $4 million to increase maritime patrols in the South and West for law enforcement, homeland security and drug interdiction.