[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 24 (Thursday, March 7, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H742]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             AIRLINE SAFETY

  (Mr. INSLEE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. INSLEE. Madam Speaker, I rise to inform my colleagues that when 
they get on their airplanes this evening or tomorrow morning, it is 
highly, highly unlikely that the checked baggage that will go into the 
belly of their airplanes will be checked for explosives. Despite the 
passage of 4 months after this House and the other Chamber and the 
President signed into law a requirement that 100 percent of all the 
checked baggage be screened for bombs, not one single bomb-detection 
piece of equipment in response to that legislation has been installed 
in an American airport. The reason for that is that finally, 6 months 
after September 11, the Federal Government finally this week got around 
to placing an order for the first 100, about 5 percent of what we need, 
of these machines to get this job done. We have to buy 2,000 of these 
machines to get this job done, and 6 months after this event the 
Federal Government still has only ordered 100.
  We want to urge the administration to act with greater dispatch to 
meet this 100 percent target. We were told this week the Inspector 
General said the target of December will not be met. We want to make 
sure the administration moves and moves quickly. We need to get this 
job done.

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