[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 157 (Wednesday, November 14, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H8162]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  CONFERENCE COMMITTEE FAILS TO MEET TODAY TO FINISH WORK ON AIRLINE 
                          SECURITY LEGISLATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I was shocked to find out that the 
conferees on the House aviation security package have just canceled the 
conference at the behest of the House leadership for today.
  That is extraordinary to me. It has been more than 2 months since the 
terrorist attacks, nearly 1 month since the Senate passed a bill 100 to 
0, and next week is Thanksgiving, the busiest travel weekend of the 
year, at least historically in terms of aviation, although concerns 
about the system might crimp that a bit this year.
  Yet, the conferees did not manage to work over the weekend. The 
conferees met yesterday for an hour and a half and did not manage to 
work late into the night. Today the conference is canceled. We hear 
that the Republicans are going to caucus with the White House but not 
include Democrats in the discussions. It sounds a little bit like a 
formula for disaster.
  What is the system that they are defending? Here is the system that 
the Republican leadership is defending.
  At Boston, part of a concourse, and this is yesterday, at Logan 
Airport was evacuated. Five hundred passengers were rescreened after an 
exit door was left unattended by the private security firm.
  Chicago: A gentleman who boarded a flight in Miami was just randomly 
rechecked boarding a flight to Hong Kong in Chicago, having gone 
through screening, private screening, in Miami, and was found to have 
large cutting implements in his luggage; apparently innocent, he is a 
chef, but these are not allowed on the plane. We cannot even take our 
cuticle scissors. Yesterday he had something that more resembled meat 
cleavers.
  Of course, there have been 24 major security violations prior to 
yesterday, and we are up to 26. Basically, they get about a 50 percent 
batting average; that is, every other day it seems like there are no 
known major security breaches in the screening system. However, before 
September 11, the private screening companies, over the last 5 years, 
averaged one security breach a day that was serious enough to be 
prosecuted or fined, one a day.
  This is the largest private security firm in the United States of 
America, Argenbright Security, owned by Securicor of Europe. They have 
some problems. They were found last year to have committed felony 
criminal offenses. They had hired and maintained known felons on staff 
and falsified documents to the Federal Government.
  Of course, they provide security at the largest airport in Texas, and 
they are being very ably defended by the majority whip and the majority 
leader: Let us keep these people in business, they are doing such a 
great job.
  Guess what: They were just found to have violated their probation 
which they were put on last year for their criminal violations, and 
their probation has been extended another 5 years.
  They are saying, well, we will more closely supervise people. What 
provides closer supervision than probation? I guess if we started 
putting the CEOs in jail maybe we would get their attention. But right 
now I think that is the closest supervision they can provide, yet we 
are delaying the conference, delaying the bill, to defend the right of 
these pathetically failing companies to stay in business.
  They say, well, we will have very strict Federal standards. We will 
set wages and benefits. The Federal Government will train the people, 
the Federal Government will supervise the people. They will be put in 
uniforms that look like Federal uniforms, but they will not be Federal 
uniforms. They will be made faux deputies; they will be deputized by 
the Federal Government but given no powers, and they will be given 
badges that look like Federal badges. They are going to do all of that.
  What is the role left for these failing private security companies 
except to collect their ill-gotten gains, their profits? We will end up 
with more supervisors under that system because of all the promises 
they have had to make.
  They say, we know it does not work very well, so we will put Federal 
supervisors at every screening point. We will put Federal supervisors 
at every conveyor belt. We will put Federal supervisors at every 
boarding gate.
  By the time the Republicans finish defending the failing private 
security firms, they have created a Rube Goldberg that is twice as big 
as the Federal system would be if the solution had been adopted as was 
adopted 100 to 0 by the United States Senate more than a month ago.
  But we cannot agree on that, and today we cannot even meet to discuss 
it. Last weekend they did not have time to stay in town and discuss it. 
Thanksgiving is looming very near in the future. They talk about not 
delivering a turkey bill. I will tell the Members what, the biggest 
turkey or the biggest bad April fool, out of date, will be if we do not 
give the American people a robust overhaul of this system before the 
busiest travel weekend of the year.

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