[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 119 (Thursday, September 13, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9396-S9397]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mrs. HUTCHISON (for herself, Mr. Specter, and Mr. Warner):
  S. 1421. A bill to direct the Federal Aviation Administration to re-
implement the sky marshal program within 30 days; to the Committee on 
Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Madam President, the bill I am introducing today, and 
for which I will soon have cosponsors because I want everyone to have 
the opportunity to join me in this effort, will address one part of our 
aviation security issue. It is not the only one that I will look for us 
to address in the long term.
  I do want the flying public to know that we have a safe and secure 
aviation system. However, last Tuesday, the terrorists who perpetrated 
this heinous crime found a vulnerability in that system. There are 
several things we will be able to do to correct this situation.
  I was Vice Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. I 
have been dealing with aviation security for a long time. Today I am 
the ranking member of the Aviation Subcommittee of the Commerce 
Committee. This is my area of interest.
  The bill I am introducing today would order the FAA to implement and 
augment within 30 days a sky marshal program that would allow for peace 
officers to be put in random airplane flights for domestic commercial 
air passenger flights and for international flights that would be 
coming into or out of America on U.S.-based airlines.
  What I am trying to do is provide an extra measure of security which 
today is the responsibility of pilots. Many people may not realize it, 
but it is the pilot and the copilot who are responsible for dealing 
with unruly passengers, or with any kind of security threat to the 
people on an airplane.
  We can no longer afford to allow pilots to have the dual 
responsibility of keeping the plane safe in the air and at the same 
time be responsible for handling disruptions in the cabin.
  The FAA, which has a very limited program, can train people on how to 
handle a breach of the peace in an airplane. It is a unique kind of 
training. It is not like military training certainly. It is not like a 
U.S. marshal on the ground. It is a different set of circumstances. An 
air marshal must be able to disarm a threat to the aircraft while 
operating in the confined space of the cabin.
  No longer can any passenger carry on even the smallest knife. The FAA 
has issued a ruling that not even a penknife will be allowed on an 
airplane by a passenger or in any kind of carry-on baggage. Our 
passengers will be disarmed. We want to make sure they are protected in 
some way.
  I am introducing this legislation, which will be a temporary program 
for 1 year. Then the FAA will report to Congress to determine if they 
believe it has been successful, if it should be continued, or if it is 
no longer necessary.
  I am allowing the FAA Administrator to assess up to $1 per passenger 
ticket for every segment of the flight. I talked to the FAA 
Administrator this morning. I told her that I wanted her to have the 
discretion to implement this program to deal with the security threats 
facing our passenger aviation system. I do not expect her to charge the 
full $1 if she does not feel that it is necessary. I do not expect her 
to do it for every leg of the flight if she does not think it is 
necessary. I do think we need to act quickly and there needs to be a 
resource.
  I can't imagine any airline passenger who would object to the payment 
of $1 for this kind of onboard security. This would be required to be 
put in place within the next 30 days.
  We need swift action to assure the flying public that we will do 
everything possible to make them secure in the air. The Administrator, 
Jane Garvey, told me this morning that she has already talked to the 
airlines about the possibility of sky marshals. My bill requires the 
airlines to provide a seat for the sky marshal regardless of 
availability. She said the airlines have already said that this is fine 
with them.

  I am very hopeful that we will be able to enact this common-sense 
measure on an expedited basis. I want the people of our country to know 
that we are not going to leave any stone unturned to protect the 
public.
  Having said that, I also want to say that this is not the end. This 
is a beginning. It is only one part of what I believe Congress and the 
President need to accomplish, working together to assure the safety of 
the people of our country. Clearly, this hijacking operation that was 
so well orchestrated is one facet of domestic terrorism. It highlighted 
a weakness in our aviation security, and we are going to clamp down in 
every way to assure the security of our flying public and the security 
of anyone in America who would be attacked by a weapon of mass 
destruction which, in this case, was an airplane.
  They found a vulnerability and they exploited it. We must assure that 
we have addressed every such vulnerability for our citizens, not only 
for the aviation security of our country, but we need to look at the 
public works in our country, the water systems, the tunnel systems we 
have for highways and trains and for mass transit, for our subway 
systems. We need to be ever vigilant over the public works of our 
country.
  Secondly, we need to establish a missile defense system for our 
country. We must not let any terrorist in the world believe that now we 
have addressed the issues of domestic terrorism within our own public 
works systems or our infrastructure but we would be vulnerable to an 
incoming ballistic missile. This should be part of our domestic 
terrorism effort.
  I appreciate the opportunity to take this first step. I hope it is 
one of many. I know my colleagues will work with me, with the 
President, all of us working together, Democrats and Republicans, to 
take the extra steps that our people expect us to take to make sure 
everyone in the world knows that we are committed to freedom and nobody 
is going to dash the spirit of America.
  Madam President, these tragedies have stunned the nation. Moreover, 
they revealed that our passenger air system was vulnerable to this 
cowardly attack. Preliminary reports indicate that the hijackers were 
armed with nothing more than knives. Horrifically, these simple weapons 
were apparently used to murder members of the flight crew as they 
bravely attempted to alert the FAA, and even change the course of at 
least one of the doomed flights, taking it away from population centers 
and our priceless national symbols.
  From these early reports, it is clear that the men and women who 
struggled to provide this information performed heroic feats while 
certainly knowing that they would not survive. We stand in awe of their 
deeds, but we lament that it was necessary. I also want to commend the 
Federal Aviation Administration for somehow managing to quickly ground 
thousands of airborne flights to remove any further threats to our 
Nation. Now, our attention must turn to finding those responsible for 
this act of war and making sure that we do everything in our power to 
prevent such a tragedy from occurring again. Airline passengers should 
not be called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice in order to avert an 
even greater tragedy.
  Since the hijacking of TWA flight 847 in June 1985, the FAA has been 
authorized to train and deploy sky marshals. There is already in place 
a training facility in Atlantic City, New Jersey. However, the FAA has 
never revealed the number or identity of the marshals, the details of 
their training, nor

[[Page S9397]]

the routes that they fly. We appreciate the need for secrecy in this 
program, but clearly, the sky marshal deployment needs to be 
substantially expanded.
  Toward that end, I am introducing the Emergency Aviation Security Act 
of 2001. The bill will require an increased random deployment of sky 
marshals on both domestic and international flights. These peace 
officers will be hired and trained under guidelines set by the FAA, 
but, at a minimum, they will undergo thorough background checks and be 
trained to deal with situations such as the ones onboard the four 
hijacked aircraft.
  The program may, at the FAA's discretion, be paid for with a ticket 
fee of not more than one dollar on every domestic segment. The program 
will be instituted on a temporary basis for one year, after which the 
FAA will report to Congress on the success of the program and make 
recommendations as to whether it should continue and if it should be 
changed.
  Last year, more than 600 million people flew through U.S. airports. 
If we only charge the fee on domestic flights, one dollar would 
generate between $400-$500 million in one year. That is enough to hire, 
train, supervise and deploy thousands of sky marshals.
  The American public needs to have the kind of security that an 
onboard peace officer would provide. Under current procedures, the 
pilot and copilot are charged with the responsibility of dealing with 
unruly passengers, as well as more serious threats. I believe that the 
pilots should fly the plane. Period. A sky marshal would relieve the 
pilot and copilot of this additional responsibility.
  The FAA should have the flexibility to determine training 
requirements and qualifications. However, these guidelines must be 
prepared within 30 days of enactment of the legislation. This tight 
time frame is necessary to protect the public. This is an emergency 
bill and I urge my colleagues, as well as the FAA, to get behind this 
urgent effort.
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