[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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