[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 15]
[House]
[Page 21676]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                    WHERE IS AVIATION SECURITY BILL?

  (Mr. RODRIGUEZ asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, where is the aviation security bill? I 
will tell you where it is. It has been hijacked. Americans are 
demanding that we act and that we act quickly; yet the House leadership 
continues to play politics.
  The travel industry is also demanding that we act quickly; yet we 
fail to move.
  It has been over 7 weeks since the September 11 date, and the 
American public knows that we could have already sent this bipartisan 
piece of legislation to the President to be signed. Yet this weekend we 
had the managers at the O'Hare Airport allow knives and other dangerous 
items to slip through. In Kentucky, we also had an occurrence.
  Even Secretary of Transportation Mineta has concluded that the 
``Federal Government must take direct control of the security system.''
  Airport security is national security. National security should be 
handled by highly trained, motivated Federal workers.
  We cannot afford to stand still. We must move forward.

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