Tuesday,
November 20, 2001
Bush
signs aviation safety bill
Baggage
screeners now federal employees, increased air marshals
By Scott Lindlaw
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
President Bush signed legislation Monday to put the
nation's airport baggage screeners on the federal payroll,
part of an effort to enhance airline safety and reassure passengers
the skies are safe 10 weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
For
our airways there is one supreme priority, security,
Bush said in a ceremony at Reagan National Airport that coincided
with the beginning of the busy holiday travel season. For
the first time, airport security will become a direct federal
responsibility.
The legislation
the subject of political wrangling was the latest
in a series of steps the government has taken to tighten safety
in the skies. Additional air marshals have been assigned to
flights in greater numbers; airline companies have strengthened
cockpit doors and members of the National Guard now patrol
many of the nation's airports.
The measure
requires airports to expand inspections of checked baggage,
and explosive detection systems are to be in place by the
end of next year. The Transportation Department may authorize
pilots to have weapons in the cockpit of their planes.
To finance
the security improvements, passengers will be charged a $2.50
fee each time they board a plane for a flight, up to $5 per
trip.
Even as
Congress voted to strengthen airline security, fewer Americans
were planning to travel by air this Thanksgiving, according
to the AAA. The travel and advocacy group, formerly known
as the American Automobile Association, forecast 4.6 million
people traveling by air, a 27 percent decline from last year's
6.3 million.
Congress
began work on the measure not long after the Sept. 11 suicide
hijackings that killed thousands in New York, Washington and
Pennsylvania.
Final
passage was delayed for weeks, though, in a partisan struggle
over the status of baggage screeners. The Senate voted 100-0
for legislation putting them on the federal payrolls, but
House Republicans opposed to an expansion of the government
work force dug in their heels and won passage of a bill that
would have left them in private companies.
Bush voiced
support for the House alternative, but also signaled his willingness
to sign any bill Congress sent him.
The compromise
bill he signed requires all 28,000 baggage screeners to become
federal employees, with the exception of five facilities that
will take part in a pilot program testing alternatives. After
three years, airports may seek permission form the government
to return to a private system of monitoring.
In his
remarks, Bush noted the differences of opinion, but said passage
of the measure was a fresh sign of the nation's unity after
the terrorist attacks.
Security
comes first. The federal government will set high standards.
And we will enforce them, he said.
The measure
was the fifth bill related to the terrorist attacks that Congress
has passed and the president signed. Others included an explicit
authorization of the use of military force; a bailout of the
airline industry; a $40 billion spending measure; and provisions
to strengthen the hand of federal investigators going after
terrorism.
Congress
is still working on two other related measures, one to stimulate
the economy and another to fight bioterrorism.
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