[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Pages 18715-18716]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                            AIRPORT SECURITY

  Mr. DORGAN. Let me ask a question in the largely empty Senate on a 
Thursday afternoon. It is now 4:05. We came to the Senate this week 
dealing with Defense authorization at a time when defense is critically 
important to this country. This country was attacked. Thousands of 
Americans tragically were killed by mass murderers who committed the 
most heinous crime that any of us have ever seen.
  The issue of defense at a moment when we are sending American men and 
women who wear our country's uniform into harm's way is a very 
important issue. Our first order of business in dealing with the 
Defense authorization bill in the Senate was to have to vote on cloture 
to shut off debate so we could complete this bill.
  What does that say about our priorities? We had a cloture vote, we 
got through that, we finished that bill, finally, and now it is 
Thursday at 4:05 in the afternoon, and the subject is airport security. 
When those commercial airliners hit the Trade Towers in New York, and 
that commercial airliner hit the Pentagon, it is something that none of 
us will ever forget--the image of the airplanes hitting the Trade 
Towers in New York, seeing the fire at the Pentagon, seeing the crater 
dug into the ground in Pennsylvania by the United Airlines jet. When 
all of that happened, immediately the FAA shut down all air service in 
the United States. Every single airplane was ordered grounded. All 
commercial airlines flying and private airplanes flying in this country 
were ordered grounded and, as I understand it, moved to the nearest 
airport they could find.
  At that moment of that day, September 11, the only thing in the skies 
over Washington, New York, and other parts of the country were F-16s, 
armed, flying combat missions over American cities.
  Our commercial airlines were ordered grounded. None flew for a number 
of days. And then commercial airlines were allowed to come back with 
added security and they began to fly once again.
  What has happened in this country is people have not been coming back 
to the airports to use commercial air service because they are 
concerned about the issue of security. Last week I boarded an airplane 
and flew to North Dakota for the weekend and came back. I appreciate 
the air service. I appreciate the added security at the airports. I 
hope all Americans will understand a substantial amount is being done 
in this country to try to make sure we will not see airplane hijackings 
once again. It is important.
  But the Congress is moving to do more with an airport security bill 
that we have been considering for a number of days on the floor of the 
Senate, but we cannot move forward. The issue of the Congress of the 
United States to put sky marshals on virtually every flight in this 
country, hiring a lot of sky marshals to say to the American people, 
when you fly, someone will fly with you, a sky marshal, trained and 
armed and ready to take over that plane if needed. That is an important 
message to the American people.
  When you fly, you will go through baggage screening that is not 
haphazard as it is in some airports but screening by somebody who is 
trained and following procedures. When you fly, that the airport 
perimeter, at airports in this country, will be a perimeter that is 
guarded, in which law enforcement understands what is happening around 
that airport perimeter.
  When you fly in the future, you will be on an airplane in which 
someone is not going to be able to get through that cockpit door 
because it is a hardened cockpit, as it is on some carriers overseas. 
All of these things relate to the question, Do we provide confidence to 
the American people that we have taken the steps as a country to 
protect ourselves against hijackers?
  So we bring a bill to the floor of the Senate, largely agreed to, 
negotiated over a long period of time--and it is now Thursday at 10 
minutes after 4--and we have a motion to proceed to the bill on airline 
and airport security, a motion to proceed to the bill that we cannot 
advance. There is a filibuster on the motion to proceed.
  There is something fundamentally wrong with that. The last thing in 
the world you would expect, in my judgment, is stalling on a motion to 
proceed to the airport security bill in the Congress in the aftermath 
of the September 11 tragedy.
  If there are things people object to, if there are things they do not 
like in this bill, things they want to change--if they have heartache 
about something, let the bill come to the floor and offer an amendment. 
Just offer it, grab a microphone, stand up, and have at it. We will be 
here. We do not have to go anyplace real soon. There is nothing, in my 
judgment, that has a higher priority than this at the moment.
  If we do not get people back in the air, if we do not get commerce 
going again in this country--business travelers and travelers for 
vacations, pleasure travelers and so forth--if we do not have people 
back in the air, we will not have a commercial aviation system left in 
this country. They are hemorrhaging in red ink, and we did a bill to 
try to provide some support for that, but that bill only lasts a very 
short period of time. We must give people confidence that when they get 
on an airplane, they are not going to have substantial risk of 
hijacking, that the security procedures in place are going to protect 
them. We must give them that confidence. That is what this legislation 
is about, and it is just unfathomable to me that there is nothing 
happening here because we have an objection on the motion to proceed.
  My colleague from Nevada, Senator Reid, said if you will not agree to 
go to the airport security bill, we have five appropriations bills that 
should have

[[Page 18716]]

been done by October 1 but we did not get them done. Let's have an 
appropriations bill on the floor this afternoon. Let's work on that. We 
can be here until midnight. Hard work is not something that is a 
stranger to most people in this Chamber.
  Do you know what? We have five appropriations bills that should have 
been done already, and we cannot get one to the floor of the Senate 
today because when the Senator from Nevada makes a unanimous consent 
request--if you will not go to airport security, then let's go to an 
appropriations bill--and the words ``I object'' are heard.
  So who is objecting, and for what purpose? And how does it advance 
this country's public policy interests, in a range of critically 
important issues--notably airport security, which I think ought to rank 
near the top, given what happened on September 11? How does it advance 
this country's interest to shut this place down?--just stop it. It 
doesn't seem to me to be the mood that ought to exist.
  Post-September 11, we have had a period unprecedented, at least in my 
judgment, here in the Congress. President Bush came to speak to a joint 
session. I thought he gave a strong and powerful speech. I thought he 
spoke for this country, saying this country is unified, this country 
has one voice. That is a voice of determination saying to the rest of 
the world that what happened in this country was a heinous act of mass 
murder. We will find those who did it, and we will punish them, and we 
will take all steps necessary to prevent that sort of thing from 
happening again in America.
  One part of that, and I must say a very important part of that, is 
dealing with security in the area of commercial airlines and commercial 
aviation. This legislation dealing with sky marshals, airport 
screening, perimeter law enforcement, hardening of the cockpit, and so 
many other issues--the appointment of an Assistant Secretary of 
Transportation whose sole authority it is to deal with security--all of 
that is in this legislation. So, on Thursday afternoon we sit in a 
spooky quiet Chamber because somehow this cooperation is not there.
  I am not here just to point my finger. I haven't named anybody or 
talked about sides here. All I say is those who say ``I object'' when 
we say at least let's move to the motion to proceed to the airport 
security bill, when they say ``I object,'' I think they retard rather 
than advance this country's interests on something so important and so 
timely and so necessary at this moment.
  The reason I wanted to speak beyond the piece of legislation I 
introduced here is to say how disappointed I am this afternoon. I think 
many of my colleagues feel the same way. I am not angry about it, I am 
just disappointed. This is not what we should do. We know how to do 
good public policy. We do good public policy by getting together and 
getting the best of what everybody has to offer, not the worst of each. 
If you have an objection, if you have a burr under your saddle 
someplace about something, if you are cranky about something, got up on 
the wrong side of the bed, didn't have sugar in your cereal, good for 
you. That doesn't mean you have to hold up the whole place. If you have 
a problem with something, come offer an amendment. These microphones 
work at every single desk. Come offer an amendment, and if you have 
enough support, you are going to win, and God bless you, that is the 
way life is here in the Senate.
  I understand people say we have a right to use the rules and the 
rules allow us to object to a motion to proceed. That is true, 
absolutely the case. But there are times, unusual times, in my 
judgment, in this country, when the American people do not want to see 
business at usual; when what the American people want to see is 
cooperation and people coming here to say, we know we have a problem, 
and when this country has a problem, we are one; we are going to work 
together and solve it.
  That doesn't mean every voice has to be singing exactly the same 
note. Someone said when everyone in the room is thinking the same 
thing, nobody is thinking very much. I am not asking for a unison of 
thought, but I am asking that we decide to take some action in this 
Congress. This is the opposite of action, and it is not the best of 
what Congress has to offer the American people so soon after the 
tragedy that occurred on September 11.
  I express my disappointment as only one Member of the Senate. But I 
hope very much others will join and we will begin next week--the Senate 
has no votes tomorrow, and Monday is Columbus Day. The Senate will not 
have votes on Monday. My hope is when we come back Tuesday, we will see 
a series of actions on the part of the Senate with a new determination 
to cooperate, to say, yes, let's do these things. We know they need to 
get done; let's do them. Bring up the airport security bill, offer some 
amendments, agree to some limitation on time on debate. If you don't 
want to do that, that is fine, but it seems to me it makes sense to get 
these things done. Bring the appropriations bills up. Let's get these 
done. Let's work in a spirit of cooperation.
  I am not saying one side is bad and the other side is good. I am 
saying all of us are on the same side. There is only one side in 
America at this point, and that is the side of trying to get the right 
thing done at the right time for the American people.
  I yield the floor, and I make a point of order a quorum is not 
present.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Dorgan). The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the 
quorum call be dispensed with.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The 
Senator from Florida.

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