[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 15]
[House]
[Page 21736]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                        GREATER AIRLINE SECURITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Lipinski) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LIPINSKI. Madam Speaker, we must pass as soon as possible an 
aviation security bill. It has been over 6 weeks since we passed the 
bail-out bill for the airline industry. I said at the time that I could 
not vote for that bill, not because it was a bad bill, but because it 
did not do anything to protect laid-off workers in the aviation 
community. And it did nothing to upgrade security in this country.
  Today we still have that problem. People are still not willing to get 
back into planes to any great degree.

                              {time}  2015

  Just this past Saturday at O'Hare, we had another incident that shows 
that we have to change security in this country. An individual carrying 
a stun gun, a can of Mace, and several knives in his carry-on luggage 
bag passed through screening at the airport without anyone stopping him 
whatsoever. That was after he had actually shown them two knives that 
he was carrying on the plane. This did not alert them whatsoever. They 
let him proceed right through that security point.
  He was stopped at the gate. He was stopped by a United Airlines 
employee who had been informed by some other United employees that he 
had purchased a one-way ticket with cash. That United person at the 
gate stopped him, went through his bag, did find the Mace, did find the 
stun gun, did find the other knives. He was taken into custody by the 
Chicago Police Department. He was turned over to the FBI. He was then 
released by the FBI. By that time, though, he missed his flight to 
Omaha, a flight that he had put checked luggage on that wound up going 
to Omaha. After all of this, no one thought to remove his bag from the 
plane that went to Omaha.
  This shows that we have to get rid of the status quo. We have to 
start with something brand new as far as aviation security. That is why 
we have to pass a bill as quickly as we possibly can. Thanksgiving is 
the greatest travel day we have in this Nation. We must have a new 
security bill in place before that so the American flying public will 
feel secure.
  There were eight screeners that the FBI said were fired at O'Hare 
Airport because of this incident. Argenbright, the security company, 
simply said that they were suspended. Of those eight individuals, three 
of them have criminal records. One of them is a known member of a gang. 
That is why we must change the status quo in aviation security as 
quickly as possible.
  Since September 11, the aviation industry has contracted to a very, 
very significant degree. At Newark, Reagan National, and Houston, 
flights are down by 35 percent; at Kennedy, 34 percent; Seattle, 
Boston, LaGuardia, Portland, and San Francisco, they are all down by 
over 25 percent. The Nation's top 31 airports are all down a minimum of 
18 percent. Since September 11, United Airlines and American Airlines 
have cut 22 percent of their flights; Northwest, 15 percent; U.S. 
Airways, 25 percent; Delta, 15 percent; Alaskan Airlines, 26 percent; 
and Continental, 44 percent.
  We are never going to get this economy going until we pass an 
upgraded aviation security bill, and we must pass that as quickly as 
possible. The House has named their conferees, the House has made a 
motion to instruct those conferees to go to conference, and we are 
waiting for the Senate. The Senate must move as quickly as possible and 
join the House in conference


so we can work out a bill to protect all the American flying public by 
the end of this week, so people will know the skies are safe when they 
are flying at Thanksgiving.

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