[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 64 (Wednesday, May 11, 2011)]
[House]
[Page H3167]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                H.R. 71

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. We have had a very challenging week, Madam 
Speaker, and I thank you for the time.
  It is a time of great patriotism and great respect for the 
institutions of democracy that this country represents. It is a 
statement that says that we will not be an offender, but we will be a 
defender. We will defend our values; we will defend our soil; we will 
defend the people of the United States.
  I have served on the Homeland Security Committee as the dust was 
rising from the site of 9/11. When I traveled to New York, I walked 
along sidewalks where there were walls of letters and pictures of loved 
ones who had not been designated as being lost and people were trying 
to see if loved ones were in hospitals. I saw the pain. And so the 
capturing and the demise of Osama bin Laden is the finishing of an era 
and a story. And we are to commend the President of the United States, 
the Navy SEALs, the JSOC and intelligence communities, and the United 
States military and persons around this Nation who are part of this 
great effort.
  Well, we live in a different world now. As the facts are unfolding in 
Pakistan, as evidence has been reviewed by the various tapes, we know 
that terrorism and al Qaeda is an active entity around the world. The 
United States is not the only target, but we are and will continue to 
be in the eye of the storm.
  As we have heard representations from terrorists and to-be leaders 
and wanna-bes about what they intend to do to retaliate, it is 
important for us to be responsible with the resources that we have. And 
so for over a year I have introduced H.R. 71, the FAMS Augmentation 
bill, the Federal Air Marshal. And I call on, today, for the 
administration and the Congress to work together to increase the number 
of air marshals on domestic flights, on long-distance flights, and to 
increase the numbers of air marshals traveling on inbound flights to 
the United States. What more do we need?
  Over the last couple of days, any series of incidents that have 
occurred, and thanks to the brave passengers now well aware since 9/11 
and flight attendants for whom I have fought consistently to get more 
training, unarmed, obviously, and many without training, are now being 
confronted with individuals who are charging now reinforced pilot 
doors, some going to the exit doors, over the last 4 days a series of 
incidents that no one knows whether or not they will stop.
  Now, we know that some allegations have been that individuals are 
suffering from mental challenges, and we understand that. We also know 
that, to date, no one had a weapon, and so the Transportation Security 
Administration is doing its job. But this is happening. That is what 
air marshals are for: to protect the traveling public, flying more than 
they have ever flown, paying higher prices for bags and food, and now 
we expect them not to be safe and secure. It is time now to augment and 
to pass H.R. 71 and to increase the number of air marshals.
  Now, we have an issue of a deficit and a debt. My question is, as 
someone would say: Are we going to be penny-wise and pound-foolish? Are 
we going to not safeguard the American people because there happens to 
be the mantra on this side of the aisle, Republicans, who don't want to 
spend a dime for anything? Well, my friends, we have to invest in the 
American public. We have got to be able to build infrastructure, and at 
the same time we have got to be responsible spenders.
  But I will tell you this. I will take spending for national security 
any day with bringing home the troops from Afghanistan, because that 
mission is complete. Now we must invest in American people. And I'm 
angry about this, that we would be so cheap that we would not provide 
the resources to give us new and additional trained Federal air 
marshals, many of whom come from the United States military. Many of 
these soldiers coming home would make excellent air marshals.

                              {time}  1040

  Many of them come from the U.S. Marshals Service and many other 
marshals services.
  What is more precious than the mother and father and children and 
relatives that are traveling to visit loved ones or for business, and 
they are coming home to the United States and we are putting them in 
jeopardy because we do not have the air marshals to protect them 
against these unknown threats?
  So my challenge today is stop being cheap, stop nickel-and-diming 
security, stop not understanding that we have the responsibility to go 
ahead and secure the American public. Today I call for more air 
marshals on the Nation's airplanes, and I call for it now. H.R. 71 
should be passed immediately.

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