[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 156 (Tuesday, November 13, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H8057-H8060]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             FRANK R. LAUTENBERG AVIATION SECURITY COMPLEX

  Mr. LoBIONDO. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 2776) to designate buildings 315, 318, and 319 located at 
the Federal Aviation Administration's William J. Hughes Technical 
Center in Atlantic City, New Jersey, as the ``Frank R. Lautenberg 
Aviation Security Complex''.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                               H.R. 2776

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. DESIGNATION.

       Buildings 315, 318, and 319 located at the Federal Aviation 
     Administration's William J. Hughes Technical Center in 
     Atlantic City, New Jersey, shall be known and designated as 
     the ``Frank R. Lautenberg Aviation Security Complex''.

     SEC. 2. REFERENCES.

       Any reference in a law, map, regulation, document, paper, 
     or other record of the United States to the buildings 
     referred to in section 1 shall be deemed to be a reference to 
     the ``Frank R. Lautenberg Aviation Security Complex''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from New 
Jersey (Mr. LoBiondo) and the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pascrell) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. LoBiondo).
  Mr. LoBIONDO. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 2776, to designate 
buildings 315, 318, and 319 located at the William J. Hughes FAA 
Technical Center as the Frank R. Lautenberg Aviation Security Complex. 
During his stellar 18-year career in the United States Senate, Frank 
Lautenberg was a strong voice for the improvement of aviation security 
in our Nation, a topic that has sadly gained more attention in the 
weeks following September 11. Twice before, he took a central and key 
role in examining the causes of aviation disasters. In 1988, after the 
bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, he chaired the first congressional 
hearings looking into the disaster and was one of only four 
congressional Members to serve on President George H.W. Bush's 
Presidential Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism.
  Eight years later, in response to the TWA 800 disaster, Senator 
Lautenberg supported a commission investigation into the incident and, 
along with his colleagues, sponsored legislation that appropriated more 
than $400 million for the acquisition of new explosive detection 
devices and other aviation security improvements.
  The complex referred to in my legislation is located at the FAA 
Technical Center in Egg Harbor Township, in my district. The tech 
center is our Nation's top research and development facility where 
nearly every advance in aircraft safety and security is born and tested 
by some of the most remarkable and dedicated professionals in the 
field. The work they are doing is tremendously important, and I salute 
them

[[Page H8058]]

for their efforts. In fact, I introduced this bill on the suggestion of 
the tech center employees and their leadership, and I have been happy 
to have their support on this issue as I have worked with House 
leadership to bring this bill to a vote today.
  The dedication of the government and private sector employees working 
today at the tech center mirrors the longtime dedication of Senator 
Lautenberg to the cause of aviation safety. It is our shared goal that 
Congress continue to do everything possible to find the right solutions 
that will ensure the traveling public will be able to fly safely and 
securely. Sadly, yesterday's tragedy in New York City reminds us of the 
constant need for new and better innovations in aircraft safety 
technology. I also hope that the naming of this facility will not only 
honor the Senator but will also serve as a reminder of the vigilance he 
displayed in working to protect the traveling public and the vigilance 
needed to spur new advances.
  I would like to thank the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young), the 
gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar), the gentleman from Florida 
(Mr. Mica), and all my cosponsors of the bill, the gentleman from New 
Jersey (Mr. Menendez), the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Saxton), the 
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Holt), the gentleman from New Jersey 
(Mr. Pallone), the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Payne), the gentleman 
from New Jersey (Mr. Pascrell), and the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. 
Rothman), for their support.
  Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. PASCRELL. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 2776. This bill 
designates buildings 315, 318, and 319 located at the Federal Aviation 
Administration's William J. Hughes, named after another great American 
from New Jersey, a great Congressman, Technical Center in Atlantic City 
as the Frank R. Lautenberg Aviation Security Complex. I commend the 
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. LoBiondo) for always reaching across the 
aisle sincerely and the entire New Jersey delegation support of this 
good legislation.
  In this time of uncertainty and uneasiness about aviation, I can 
think of no more fitting tribute to a man who changed our way of 
thinking about aviation. Senator Lautenberg is a great American and a 
son of my hometown of Paterson, New Jersey. The son of immigrants, 
Frank Lautenberg came from a working-class background. In fact, his 
father worked in the silk mills in Paterson located around the same 
area where I grew up.
  After graduating high school, he served the United States citizens by 
joining the Army Signal Corps in Europe. Upon his return, Senator 
Lautenberg began a life of public service to the citizens of the Garden 
State. The impact he has had on our Nation's health, safety and 
security is significant; and that is why we honor him today. He is the 
author of laws that have shaped the lives and enriched the health and 
safety of Americans.
  Throughout his 19 years of public service, Frank Lautenberg 
distinguished himself as a thoughtful and energetic leader. He 
advocated passionately for transportation issues, including aviation 
security. The terrorist attack over Lockerbie, Scotland, propelled the 
President to create the President's Commission on Aviation Security and 
Terrorism. Frank Lautenberg served with distinction on the Pan Am 103 
commission, and worked over the last several years on a number of 
initiatives to promote and to fund aviation security.
  Frank Lautenberg's leadership in the Senate laid the foundation to 
enhancing aviation security. The commission's 1990 report found the 
Nation's civilian aviation security system to be seriously flawed and 
made 64 recommendations to correct those flaws. The Aviation Security 
Improvement Act of 1990 incorporated those recommendations.
  In 1996, spurred on by the tragedy of TWA 800, that tremendous 
explosion, President Clinton organized another commission, the 1996 
White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security. The commission 
made 31 recommendations for enhancing aviation security that were 
ardently supported by Senator Lautenberg. He subsequently led efforts 
in the Senate to include measures in the 1996 FAA Reauthorization Act 
and the Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act of 1997 to not only 
intensify security but also to appropriate needed funds for new 
explosives-detection technology.
  I was able to visit the Atlantic City facility earlier this year with 
my friend, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. LoBiondo), and the rest 
of our subcommittee. The work that they are doing in that facility is 
remarkable. It will assist us for generations to come in terms of 
aviation security. The research conducted at the Federal Aviation 
Administration's technical center is on the cutting edge. I must tell 
my friend from New Jersey, as many times as I passed there before I 
became a Congressman, never did I see what was going on in there. I was 
absolutely floored at the work that is being done in our behalf and the 
citizens of this great Nation. The programs housed in those buildings, 
to be renamed in honor of Senator Lautenberg, are key to successful 
research.
  At the core is building 315, the aviation security laboratory, which 
was dedicated to the victims of Pan Am 103. Research in the ASL focuses 
on bulk explosives detection and certification testing. Buildings 318 
and 319 are dedicated to bulk luggage and luggage containers testing, 
and explosives trace detection equipment operations and testing, 
respectively. This is critical to the aviation industry in our Nation. 
If we do what we have to do in the next 2 weeks, we will begin to 
continue to finish the package which we started a few years ago.
  Madam Speaker, I thank my New Jersey colleagues for introducing this 
measure; and I urge my colleagues' support for H.R. 2776.
  Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. LoBIONDO. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to 
the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith).
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Madam Speaker, I want to commend my good 
friend and colleague, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. LoBiondo), for 
this meaningful resolution and for his sensitivity and his 
bipartisanship in proffering it today and for naming the tech center, 
which is an outstanding center in New Jersey in his district, after 
Frank Lautenberg.
  Madam Speaker, while I had serious differences with Senator 
Lautenberg from time to time especially on safeguarding unborn children 
there is no doubt that Frank worked tirelessly for the State of New 
Jersey. A self-made millionaire, he knew that hard work and industry 
are key ingredients in any endeavor. He was a great friend of Amtrak. 
We all know how vital Amtrak is to the Northeast Corridor and New 
Jersey in particular. The ridership continually climbs, not just 
because of aviation safety issues but because people like it; it is 
relatively inexpensive; and it gets you there on time and schedule, 
permits maximum flexibility in personal or professional planning.
  He also worked very hard with me and as he did with other Members of 
our delgation. For example we recently had a specific need in 
Manasquan. We wanted to get a new state of the art motorized lifeboat, 
for sea rescues and recovery. Senator Lautenberg and I worked the 
procurement of the boat from both ends of the Capitol and succeeded.
  He helped lead the effort against smoking on commercial aircraft. My 
mother died from lung cancer as a result of smoking and my family and I 
miss her dearly. We know that something on the order of 400,000 to 
500,000 people will die from smoking every year. It's an outrage. Yet, 
having a flight attendant as a sister-in-law and a brother who is a 
pilot and 757 captain, we know that secondhand smoke can be very 
deleterious to one's health and can lead to lung cancer and emphysema 
and other anomalies attributable to smoking.
  Finally, one seemingly obscure provision that Senator Lautenberg took 
the lead on that really does not make the front page, and it is 
something that I have worked with him on for many years, and that was 
known as the Lautenberg amendment. It was an amendment designed to 
assist, to facilitate emigration of Soviet Jews and other

[[Page H8059]]

persecuted people in the Soviet Union as well as Indochinese nationals, 
to give them a special and a vitally necessary protection and refugee 
status.
  Madam Speaker, normal refugee procedures require an adjudication of 
that case on a case-by-case basis. The record clearly indicated that 
many people, worthy individuals, were being improperly screened out and 
being left behind in a the country where tyranny did its terrible 
misdeeds to those individuals. Because the Soviets, for example, 
imposed such egregious repression on Jews and whole categories of 
people by reason of their inclusion and identification with that group, 
the Lautenberg amendment first adopted in 1990 stipulated that if the 
whole group was affected, they as individuals would be able to get the 
kind of protection refugee status that would lead to their freedom.

                              {time}  1645

  The Lautenberg amendment has resulted in freedom for thousands of 
people. Again, it never made a big splash in the media, but it is a 
very humanitarian piece of legislation for which he is the author.
  I thank again my good friend, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. 
LoBiondo), for sponsoring this bill.
  Mr. PASCRELL. Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from 
New Jersey (Mr. Payne), a very close associate of Senator Lautenberg.
  Mr. PAYNE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time 
and allowing me to express my appreciation for the work done by Senator 
Lautenberg. Let me commend, in addition to the gentleman from New 
Jersey (Mr. Pascrell), the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. LoBiondo) for 
bringing this legislation to the floor.
  I am pleased to rise in support of this measure to designate three 
buildings located at the Federal Aviation Administration's William J. 
Hughes Technical Center in Atlantic City as the Frank R. Lautenberg 
Aviation Security Complex after one of New Jersey's most distinguished 
and dedicated public servants, my friend and my former colleague, 
Senator Frank Lautenberg.
  Senator Lautenberg is well known throughout New Jersey and the Nation 
for his prolific legislative achievements, but even before his election 
to the United States Senate, he worked tirelessly in pursuit of the 
American dream. He is proof that this country is great, because of what 
he was able to do even before he was elected to the United States 
Senate.
  His is indeed a classic American success story. Born to immigrant 
parents, as we have heard, who were forced to move consistently in 
search of work, his father worked in the mills, his mother worked in 
other types of jobs during World War II, at Prudential doing work 
there, but he set his goals for himself in his early life. He 
remembered what his parents told him, that he could be anything he 
wanted to be, and he never wavered in the quest to fulfill his 
aspirations.
  After completing high school in Nutley, New Jersey, he enlisted in 
the Army, serving in the Army Signal Corps in Europe during World War 
II. After the war, he earned a degree in economics from Columbia 
University, using the GI Bill, which was a bill where America said we 
are going to educate our returning veterans. So many Americans were 
able to lift themselves up because the Federal Government made a 
determination that we should help our returning servicemen. As a matter 
of fact, that program, where many people talk about government is too 
big, that set the United States of America far ahead of the world, and 
that is why we have been able to achieve the prominence that we have 
today.
  After the war and after he earned his degree, then he got into the 
spirit of American entrepreneurship and joined two boyhood friends in 
establishing a payroll service company, Automatic Data Processing, ADP.
  Senator Lautenberg was a champion of the revitalization efforts 
throughout New Jersey. Following my election to the House of 
Representatives in 1988, I was always able to count on Senator 
Lautenberg as an advocate of major economic development efforts, 
including the world-class Performing Arts Center in Newark, New Jersey, 
which helped to stimulate economic development; and now Newark is 
moving back to the prominence that it once had: the development of the 
waterfront; millions of dollars in funding for Urban Core mass transit 
programs, including the Newark-Elizabeth Rail Link, Bergen Rail, and 
throughout the State.
  Senator Lautenberg gained a national reputation as a powerful voice 
for environmental protection, fighting for safe drinking water, clean 
air, a ban on ocean dumping of sewage, clean beaches, prevention of oil 
spills and a strong Superfund bill to clean up toxic sites.
  Senator Lautenberg has worked to improve educational opportunities in 
our Nation so that coming generations will have the chance to live the 
American dream as he has. Senator Lautenberg helped author the Hope 
Scholarship, which provides a $1,500 tax credit for college students. 
He fought to improve our public schools by providing important 
resources, including new computers, so that students will be prepared 
for high-tech jobs in the future. He even put his own money up to say 
that any kids who graduate from the elementary school that he went to 
could go to college, and he would pay the way.
  A strong supporter of affirmative action, Senator Lautenberg has 
fought discrimination based on race, religion, disability or sexual 
orientation. He was a staunch supporter of the Americans With 
Disabilities Act, and in 1991 he supported the Civil Rights Act 
strongly. He has supported full funding for the Legal Service 
Corporation to ensure that all individuals have access to legal 
protection.
  In addition to his work here, I had the opportunity to travel to 
Israel with Senator Lautenberg, where an entire community center for 
education, for the help of young children in Israel, is there as a 
contribution that he has done.
  So his work has been worldwide, and I think it is no more fitting and 
proper today, as has been indicated by my colleague from Paterson, that 
when air transportation is being questioned, when there is, as we know, 
the horrible act of yesterday, where a tremendous accident happened 
over in New York, that we need to be sure that we have the opportunity 
to name a facility in the name of such a great person.
  So I urge my colleagues to support this resolution honoring the great 
former colleague, Senator Frank Lautenberg.
  Mr. PASCRELL. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from 
New Jersey (Mr. Holt).
  Mr. HOLT. Madam Speaker, I thank my friend from Paterson for yielding 
me time, and I thank my friend the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. 
LoBiondo) also for advancing this legislation to recognize an important 
function, an important center, but especially to recognize an important 
American.
  Former Senator Frank Lautenberg has left a mark on America that we 
all should recognize. In education, his support for public schools; in 
law, his support to provide good legal advice for the less advantaged; 
in arts and culture; in the environment, clean air, clean water, 
excellent legislation dealing with open space and Superfund.
  But we all know him best for his work in transportation. In 14 years 
as ranking member and chairman of the Subcommittee on Transportation of 
the Committee on Appropriations, he made a mark on almost every aspect 
of transportation in America. It is not just building things and 
funding infrastructure, there is much of that that we can point to; but 
it was other things, such as we have heard mentioned today.
  He recognized that smoking is not just an annoyance; that other 
people's smoke actually is a health hazard, and he banned smoking in 
airplanes.
  But what I particularly remember is the work that he did to stop 
drunk driving. With his 0.08 alcohol level legislation, he saved so 
many lives that you could fill a sports stadium with the young adults 
who are alive today because of what he did. But, of course, the 
difficult point is, no one knows who those are, whose lives were saved, 
so we could not find them to fill the stadium. But, believe me, there 
are countless tragedies that have been prevented because of Frank 
Lautenberg's 0.08 alcohol legislation.
  So, throughout the area of transportation he has left an important 
mark,

[[Page H8060]]

and it is fitting that we recognize him now in one area where he 
contributed something that is particularly relevant today, and that is 
transportation, specifically airline security.
  I commend my friends for advancing this legislation, and I urge its 
passage to the rest of my colleagues.
  Mr. PASCRELL. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Madam Speaker, before yielding back, I just want to thank again the 
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. LoBiondo) for his diligent work, and I 
want to thank the gentleman from Alaska (Chairman Young) and the 
ranking member, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar) for helping 
us get to the floor here, and thank all the Members from the New Jersey 
delegation.
  Madam Speaker,I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. LoBIONDO. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume to close.
  Madam Speaker, I would like to say that it was an honor for me to 
serve with Senator Lautenberg. I learned a great deal from the Senator 
about effective and positive public service. He was someone that led by 
example, and his leadership and vision will have a lasting impact on 
our aviation security. This indeed is a fitting tribute to a great 
leader that I am very proud to call my friend.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Biggert). The question is on the motion 
offered by the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. LoBiondo) that the House 
suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 2776.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor 
thereof) the rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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