Adm. Robert Papp steps down as top Arctic diplomat

Retired U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Robert Papp has stepped down from his State Department post as U.S. Special Representative for the Arctic and joined a shipbuilding company as its Washington, D.C., lobbyist.

Papp, who had served as a Coast Guard officer for nearly 40 years, stepped down as the agency's top official — commandant — in 2014.

In a statement issued earlier this month, Eastern Shipbuilding Group Inc. of Panama City, Florida, named Papp as its first permanent official in D.C. The company is a major contractor with the Coast Guard and is set to design and build nine new patrol cutters under a contract that could exceed $10 billion for 25 cutters.