Jay Inslee: Washington's 1st Congressional District

Issues

Funding for Baggage Screening

Inslee Amendment Increases Baggage Screening Funds by $250 Million-- "No Excuses Now!"

November 29, 2001

Late last night (10pm EST) the House of Representatives passed U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee's amendment to increase baggage screening funds by $250 million. Inslee wrote the amendment in response to Transportation Secretary Mineta's comments that the baggage screening deadlines passed into law were not likely to be met.

The Inslee amendment was attached to the Department of Defense Appropriation bill. The $250 million for screening baggage will come out of the $2.50 airline ticket fee that was also recently passed into law. Before Inslee's amendment passed, money from airline ticket fees would have gone into Congress' general fund, to be spent on anything at all (not necessarily anything to do with air travel).

Inslee commented, "This is a sign that Congress wants to be on wartime footing. A country that can produce 12,000 B-24's in WWII can also make 2,000 baggage screening machines in a year. When it comes to technology, Americans don't know the word "can't.""

"One week after the President signed the airline security bill, we should not be give up and say that we can not provide Americans the protection they deserve, when they deserve it. This additional $250 million was provided on a bipartisan basis, and there should be no excuses for failure. The House has said: If there are not enough employees on hand - hire them. If there are not enough dogs to sniff out explosives - train more dogs. If positive bag match systems are not installed - install them."

"These goals are not beyond reach. Our National Guard standing in airports can bend to this task tomorrow morning. Dogs can be trained in 60 days. Airlines already do positive bag match on international flights. Congress simply insists that we exercise every effort to do more on this issue."

Inslee's amendment passed by a voice vote, and the Department of Defense Appropriation bill (HR 3320) to which it was attached passed by 406-20.