[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 142 (Tuesday, October 23, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H7209]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
AIRLINE SECURITY LEGISLATION NEEDED
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Brown of South Carolina). Under a
previous order of the House, the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Inslee)
is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Speaker, this is day 42 after the attack of September
11, and still this Chamber has not had one single solitary itty-bitty
vote to do a darn thing about airline safety. It is incredible to me
that tomorrow we will be voting on these giant handouts, corporate tax
breaks; and we have done absolutely nothing, Mr. Speaker, for the
traveling public of this country to make airlines safer.
Let me tell you why I feel so strongly about this. Thursday I was
flying up to New York, and the fellow next to me was going through
security. And we have got National Guardsmen standing there, and they
are doing the great duty standing there. And our screeners are I think
trying to do a little better job.
The guy next to me had a nail clipper, and the screening people said,
``Sir, you can't have that.'' They took the nail clipper and ripped off
the little pointed deal to take the nail clipper away from him.
That is great, that we are taking nail clippers away from people. But
they did not do anything about the guy's bag that he checked in that
could have had 40 pounds of C-4 high explosives in it, that went right
into the belly of the airplane I was getting on, with another 150
people getting on, who thought, who thought the bags are checked for
explosives in this country.
In fact, they are not, because, Mr. Speaker, the sad fact is that 90
percent probably-plus of the bags that go into our airplanes go
straight into the belly of the airplane, and they are not checked for
anything. They could have dynamite, they could have nitrates, they
could have C-4, they could have gasoline, and they are not checked
about that. Do you know what the House has done about that for the last
40 days is zip.
I have to tell you, Mr. Speaker, I am very frustrated by the
majority's refusal to bring up a vote in this Chamber to do anything
about airline safety when this incredible risk is being faced by the
traveling public.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. George
Miller).
Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. I thank the gentleman for yielding
and want to thank him and the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Ramstad)
for rising also on this.
It is just unbelievable to our constituents when we go home and they
ask about airport safety to tell them that we have done nothing; that
the committee has completed its work, legislation is prepared to go,
the Senate has passed the bill, and on the House floor we have done
nothing.
It is even more unbelievable to them when they read one of the
reasons the House has not taken action is that you have the leadership
in the Republican Party now telling lobbyists that if they do not come
and lobby against this legislation, they will not help them out in
other pieces of legislation, they will not help them out on things that
matter to them.
So what we have now is we have this lobbying game, or fund-raising
game, or favors game being played in this Chamber, in this House,
against the safety of the American people. It is an outrage to the
American people, because the gentleman is so right.
Today I walked all over San Francisco airport. I saw the entire
airport. I was in the line so I could get through the machines to clear
your carry-on luggage. All that was was the appearance of safety. It
was not safety, as the gentleman points out, because we still have not
gotten to the point where we have the kinds of technology, the
machines, the security, the training, the people in place.
So the gentleman is absolutely right. The leadership of this House on
the Republican-side of the aisle absolutely ought to be ashamed. They
are breaking faith with the American people on getting this legislation
to the floor so that we can get on with it. And it is harming our
communities, because the American people are not flying unless they
absolutely have to. That is hurting the economies in Florida, Texas,
Arizona, California, and the State of Washington and New York and all
points in between, because the American people are still nervous. And
they ought to be nervous, because this Congress has not addressed this
issue.
Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, let me tell you, I
represent Boeing Company. We make the airplanes. If the airlines do not
have passengers, we do not sell airplanes. The majority party is
bringing up a stimulus package tomorrow that basically is a tax bill
out for some corporate interests, which is okay. That is a legitimate
issue at least to vote on. But the fact of the matter is you could do
the biggest stimulus package in this known universe; and if they take
down a couple more of our airplanes, the U.S. economy is going in the
tank. Boeing is going to have major problems; I will tell you that.
This is an economic and safety issue. To me, it is just absolutely
stunning, when we would pass this bill, airline security, that passed
100 to zip in the Senate; and it would pass with overwhelming
bipartisan support. If we had a vote on this, Republicans and Democrats
would link hands and say we need some modicum of airline safety. This
would not be a partisan issue. But the leadership, which wants to hand
out these special goods to special interests, is blocking a bipartisan
majority in this House to keep planes from being blown up in the sky. I
think it is ridiculous.
We have had some good bipartisan cooperation, sending a message to
the world that we are united in dealing with this menace. But when it
comes time to stand up to the special interests, the majority
leadership is not allowing us to do it. And it is wrong; and we are
going to talk on this floor, until this gets done, every night.
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