[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 16]
[House]
[Page 22427]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                REPUBLICAN POSITION ON AIRLINE SECURITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Foley) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Speaker, there have been some troubling comments made 
by our colleagues relative to the Republican position on airline 
security. There have been many comments made that we somehow do not 
treat this urgent matter with the due diligence that it deserves; and I 
want to underscore, as chairman of the Travel and Tourism Caucus, the 
co-chairman along with the gentleman from California (Mr. Farr), that 
we take this very seriously; and I want to also underscore as a 
Floridian, tourism is our number one enterprise in our State.
  It seems like we are all bickering over a potential whether we should 
hire 28,000-some workers and whether those workers be part of the 
Federal system. Let me suggest to my colleagues that under the 
Republican version of the bill that is languishing in the other body 
for failure to compromise on some other positions, we suggest that we 
could do a blending at the discretion of the President and the 
Transportation Secretary, former Democratic Chairman Norman Mineta, 
that we look to see what is most appropriate for securing the terminals 
at our airports throughout our Nation.
  Let me ask anybody who has owned a business or hired people before 
how long it takes to do background and training to get a workforce 
ready. Multiply that by 28,000 individuals, and my colleagues will see 
the complexity of the problem. It may not be a big problem for 
LaGuardia or JFK or Washington Reagan National or John Wayne and some 
of the larger airports in our country; but think of some of the smaller 
regional and rural airports where we must man that same security 
checkpoint.
  Every Republican supports strict Federal rules and regulations. Every 
Republican is not satisfied with the status quo. Those that have 
accused us of somehow trying to be supportive of the current contract 
holders of this service are absolutely unequivocably wrong. In my case 
in Palm Beach County, I would love for the President of the United 
States and Mr. Mineta to contract with the Palm Beach County Sheriff's 
Department professional law enforcement officers, members of the Police 
Benevolent Association Union or Fraternal Order of Police Union, allow 
them to be contracted with to be on-site security screeners for our 
airports.
  We can do that in a matter of 72 hours, deploying those people to 
that important checkpoint. That is what the flexibility provides the 
President the right to do; but under their version, it cannot be done 
that way.
  We may hire 28,000 people ultimately, who knows. We will continue to 
negotiate and try and prevail in the opinion which we believe is the 
correct one, that we have a blending of responsibilities; but if we do 
not secure the entirety of the airport system, including those who work 
at the ramps, those who load the luggage, those who bring in the food 
carts, or those who clean the planes, we will have left a gaping hole 
in the security of our airplanes and our airports.
  I applaud everyone in this Chamber who has worked hard on trying to 
get an aviation safety bill passed. I regret some are using false 
rhetoric in describing our leadership and others as not caring about 
public safety. I take umbrage and challenge those types of statements 
because they are absolutely, factually incorrect. We want safety. We 
want security. We prioritized these issues. We will not back away from 
these issues; but when my colleagues use one little political call that 
by hiring these 28,000 we have ensured some degree of safety, we are 
misleading people because it will take far too long, potentially 3 to 5 
years, to even get this workforce up and running, and that in fact does 
not bring security to date. Our bill does.
  I urge the other body to act. I urge them to compromise. I look 
forward to a bill for the President to sign and returning safety to our 
skies.

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