[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6057]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      SECURING AMERICA'S AIRPORTS

  (Ms. JACKSON LEE asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I have the privilege of serving on the 
Homeland Security Committee, and in that capacity I have the oversight 
for any number of agencies, including the Transportation Security 
Administration agency, along with our ranking member and ranking member 
of our subcommittee and our chairpersons. Let me be very clear: we want 
America to be secured.
  But I had the privilege of meeting again with the Administrator of 
TSA, and as we watched incidents in Arizona and Chicago, I am very sure 
that as we build the TSOs and as we work to correct these issues, we 
could not have a better frontline defense for protecting America.
  As I have traveled to airports across the Nation and watched 
civilians or citizens, passengers traveling through, I have seen a 
smile and a recognition of how important TSOs are. It is important to 
make sure that equipment works, and it is more important to make sure 
that we have the right kind of staffing. We are almost 3,000 to 4,000 
short of the number of TSOs that we need.
  It is also important that we recognize that a professional Federal 
staff is very important, similar to the many other law enforcement 
agencies that we have. Privatization is not the answer, but efficiency, 
expediency, good equipment, and training is. I believe we are moving 
forward to make sure that we have that kind of trained force to secure 
the American people and secure the Nation's airports.

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