[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 82 (Tuesday, May 24, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H2969-H2970]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           TSA FUNDS DIVERTED

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) for 5 minutes.

[[Page H2970]]

  

  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, as I speak here today on the comfortable 
and uncrowded floor of the House of Representatives, all across 
America, people are standing in lines like cattle, waiting 60 minutes, 
90 minutes, sometimes longer, missing their flights to get through 
airport security. It didn't have to be this way.
  We do a lot of things around here that are kind of not quite on the 
up-and-up, and one of them was a deal at the end of 2013 December, 
essentially when Americans are celebrating the holidays and not paying 
a lot of attention. Congress cut one of those year-end budget deals to 
fund the whole government and theoretically reduce the deficit.
  Now, my friends on the Republican side are totally averse to dealing 
with the deficit through any sort of revenues: can't raise revenues, 
can't make hedge fund managers on Wall Street pay taxes like other 
Americans because that would be bad; can't deal with overseas 
loopholes, corporations reincorporating in tax havens so they won't 
have to pay money here, even though they are based here and operate 
here. We can't deal with any of those issues.
  They snuck into that bill a little fee, yeah, just a little tiny fee. 
They raised the fee for aviation security.
  So why are things so bad today? If they just raised the fee in 
December of 2013, raising an extra $1.2 billion--B, as in billion--a 
year for aviation security, why are the lines so long?
  Well, guess what. They raised the fee, and they diverted the money. 
So airline passengers are paying more for their tickets ostensibly for 
aviation security to keep them safe and maybe to mitigate some of their 
inconvenience of standing in line, but the Republican majority chose to 
divert that money to deficit reduction and other things--$1.25 billion 
dollars this year.
  Now, I heard the head of the union for the screeners on the radio 
this morning. He said we need 6,000 more workers. And they said, well, 
God, how much is that going to cost? Six thousand, how could you 
possibly afford that?
  Guess what. It would cost a heck of a lot less than $1.2 billion to 
hire 6,000 more screeners so Americans didn't have to stand in 2-hour 
lines and miss their flights.
  What is wrong with this place? Why can't we be on the up-and-up.
  If you raise a tax on people to pay for aviation security, both to 
make them safe and to make it more convenient and predictable, spend 
the money making it more safe, making it more convenient, and making it 
more predictable. Don't divert the money to illusory deficit reduction 
or other things around here. That is incredible.
  So all Congress has to do is say: Hmm--of course, I voted against the 
bill, but the large majority who did--we were wrong. We shouldn't have 
raised the fees on airline passengers. We shouldn't have diverted the 
money. We shouldn't have starved TSA from the funds they need to hire 
more people, both to deal with baggage and lines. Up above and below, 
we have got problems in both places with lack of staffing.
  Now, we will just blame the management of TSA. Oh, it is the 
management. It is the management. Don't look over here, because we are 
taxing the passengers and we are spending the money over here, not on 
security. That is why people are standing in line today.
  I hope this place gets honest and says: Let's change the law and 
let's spend the money, the taxes the passengers are paying, on aviation 
security and eliminate the excessive waits in lines.

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