[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 170 (Friday, November 21, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Page S15470]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mrs. CLINTON:
  S. 1927. A bill to establish an award program to encourage the 
development of effective bomb-scanning technology; to the Committee on 
Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
  Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, ever since the events of September 11, 
2001 awakened this Nation to the very real dangers of the world we live 
in, we have been struggling to defend ourselves against terrorism. Our 
aviation system remains a primary target for terrorists, and we must be 
every vigilant in the fight to keep that system safe. The economic 
viability, not to mention safety and security, of our country is at 
stake in that fight.
  Nowhere is this more obvious than in New York. Not only did we bear 
the brunt of the worst terrorist attack in our Nation's history, but we 
also depend on our airports to fuel our state economy. John F. Kennedy 
Airport in Queens is the Nation's premier international gateway and 
contributes approximately $30 billion to the regional economy while 
employing 35,000 people. LaGuardia Airport, also in Queens, handles 
over 20 million passengers a year despite having only two 7000-foot 
runways on 680 acres. Our airports in Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, and 
Buffalo have seen strong growth in recent years with the arrival of 
low-cost carriers.
  Unfortunately, our economic and physical security remains at risk 
because we still have not developed a way to effectively scan each 
piece of passenger luggage for explosives. We have recognized that in 
the current world environment, we must scan each bag, but technology 
has not kept up with our needs. The current technology used in most 
airports in this country is known to have a false-positive rate of 
approximately 20 percent. This means that machines incorrectly identify 
20 percent of all bags going through them as containing explosives, 
thus slowing down the process considerably as well as costing time and 
money. Even more dangerous is the false-negative rate of these 
machines. This number, the percentage of bags going undetected through 
these machines with bombs inside of them during test runs, should be 
close to zero. The actual false-negative rate is not publicized for 
obvious reasons, but it is known to be well above zero.
  I am proposing a bill today that seeks to create a major incentive 
for firms to invent a bomb-scanning technology that actually works. It 
will award $20 million to any firm that can successfully produce a 
machine that has a false-positive rate less than 10 percent, a false 
negative rate less than 2 percent, and is feasible for deployment en 
masse at our Nation's airports. Although we are currently spending 
money on researching this technology, that funding is clearly not 
getting us there fast enough. This new award will help to spur the 
private sector to develop new technology that will make a major 
difference in the safety of our aviation system.
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