[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 19230]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   FOREIGN WORKERS AND U.S. AIRCRAFT

  (Mr. POE of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, American taxpayers spend millions of 
dollars a year screening people who board an airplane. We check IDs and 
roll-on luggage. We check purses, pockets and computers, and we take 
off our shoes. We check everything that goes through the door. But the 
next attack on our country is probably not going to be because somebody 
is flying in an airplane. It will probably be because somebody has 
access to our airports and our airplanes who shouldn't.
  Byron Burris of WFFA in Dallas reports that the San Antonio Aerospace 
facility in Texas has hired 767 foreign airplane mechanics over the 
past 2 years without a real background check. These mechanics come from 
45 countries, including Vietnam, Ethiopia, Egypt, Venezuela, Nicaragua, 
Cuba, Jordan, China and Sudan. These people work on American airplanes.
  The State Department says it does a ``criminal'' background check, 
but reports indicate those checks are of poor quality and sometimes are 
left up to a third party.
  We are ignoring the obvious when it comes to airline safety. Foreign 
workers with shady or unknown backgrounds should not have access to 
American aircraft.
  And that's just the way it is.

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