REMARKS
FOR
THE
HONORABLE NORMAN Y. MINETA
SECRETARY
OF TRANSPORTATION
US
CONFERENCE OF MAYORS
WINTER
MEETING
WASHINGTON,
D. C.
JANUARY
23, 2002
8:30
AM
Good
morning and welcome to Washington. Thank
you, Mayor (Marc) Morial for the warm words of introduction.
I applaud the work your organization has done to develop a National
Action Plan for safety and security in America’s cities.
I also
thank the US Conference of Mayors for all the support you have given me over
these many years.
Mayor
Williams, Mayor Hahn, it is a pleasure to share the stage with you.
I so enjoy
having the opportunity to speak with the dynamic leaders who help to make our
cities and towns safe, secure and livable communities.
In my long career, I have worked with many--if not all--of you on a
variety of transportation-related issues.
I will
always have a warm place in my heart for America’s mayors.
As a former mayor, I know, first hand, that the job you do is “where
the rubber meets the road.” After the September 11th
terrorist attacks, that job has gotten a lot more difficult.
But, know that we in Washington are committed to doing all that we can to
ease the burden.
This
morning I would like to give you an update on what the Bush Administration and
the Department of Transportation are doing to meet the requirements of the
Aviation and Transportation Security Act (ATSA).
The ATSA
requires that, for the first time, security for all modes of transportation will
be the responsibility of the federal government. To carry out this critical role, the legislation created a
new Transportation Security Administration within DOT.
Let me
take this opportunity to introduce you to the exceptional individual President
Bush has chosen to lead this new security agency -- Under Secretary of
Transportation for Security, John Magaw.
John
please stand. I am sure you will
give him the same outstanding support you have given me over the years.
As a
career law enforcement and security professional with the U.S. Secret Service,
John helped protect eight Presidents. Now,
he is working shoulder-to-shoulder with me, with Deputy Secretary Michael
Jackson, and with my entire senior management team at DOT to recruit and retain
highly competent men and women — people who will be proud of their service to
their country, and worthy of their Nation’s pride.
Under
John’s leadership, the TSA will be responsible for creating a new federal
airport security force, an expanded Federal Air Marshal program, deployment and
creation of new screening technologies, administrative and support staff, and
high-tech researchers, as well as a host of other new improvements in aviation
and transportation security.
To do
this, we will need to hire more than 30,000 new federal employees to staff this
new law enforcement agency – an agency that will be larger than the FBI, the
Drug Enforcement Administration, and
the Border Patrol combined. It is a
huge undertaking, and I am here to tell you that the Department of
Transportation is up to the challenge.
We are
looking for experience, people who are stress-tested — individuals who can
step in right away and take charge. We
are looking for maturity of judgment, steadiness in a crisis, leaders who can in
turn attract top professionals in the field.
These new
jobs will pay salaries ranging from $20,000 to $150,000 a year at airports
across the nation. Anyone seeking
employment opportunities in the new TSA can go to several websites for more
information:
the DOT
website, www.dot.gov;
the Office
of Personnel Management website, www.usajobs.opm.gov;
or
the Federal Aviation Administration website,
http://jobs.faa.gov.
Last
month, we announced the qualifications for new screeners. Following the language of the law, these new screeners will
be citizens of the United States, and have either a high school education or
equivalent work experience that demonstrates their ability to do the job.
They must
pass tough new background and security checks, including criminal history
checks. They must read, write and speak English well enough to communicate
clearly with passengers undergoing screening.
And, they must have the physical abilities, as measured by a medical
examination, and the basic aptitudes, as measured by tough new proficiency
tests, to do the work.
We will
extend a hiring preference to veterans of America’s armed forces, and to those
workers furloughed from aviation jobs as a result of the terrorist attacks.
We will
deploy the TSA with care, terminal-by-terminal, airport-by-airport.
At the peak this summer, we may well be managing some phase of the
start-up at over 100 airports simultaneously. Before the end of this year, we
must have completed the transition to a full federal security screening
workforce at all 429 airports.
The new
TSA legislation recommends taking a systems approach to integrating new
technologies and procedures at demonstration airports.
It authorizes several pilot programs to test technologies in at least 20
airports.
I assure you that as we strive for nationwide consistency in the
application of reasonable and prudent security measures, we will continue to
take local concerns into account.
The new law provides increased funding flexibility for aviation security
improvements at airports, and requires the FAA to expedite the processing and
approval of security-related passenger facility fee requests.
Last
Friday we began meeting the requirement for checked baggage screening -- either
by machine, by hand, or bomb-sniffing dog, or by matching each piece of checked
luggage to a passenger on board. And, as many
of you who flew to Washington this week have experienced, the new screening
process has not lengthened check-in lines nor increased delays.
We will
continuously upgrade our screening capability, ultimately meeting the
requirement that each checked bag be screened by an explosive detection system
by the end of this year.
The large
Federal force that will be in place by November will depend on the additional
resources and expertise of State and local authorities – particularly the
expertise of the airport directors who we recognize are on the front lines with
us in this aviation security effort. I
thank them in advance for the tremendous support they will provide.
While much
of the recent media attention has focused on aviation safety, the Transportation
Security Administration will work to develop heightened security procedures and
awareness across every mode of transportation including rail, highways, transit,
maritime and pipeline.
That work
has already begun. In the week
following the September 11th attacks, I established the National
Infrastructure Security Committee (NISC) to evaluate security in the surface
modes of transportation and to provide recommendations for improvement.
To reach
that goal, the NISC created six “Direct Action Groups” (DAGs) to handle
specific modes of transportation. These
include:
Maritime
Hazardous
Materials
Pipeline
Surface
(Highways and Motor Carriers)
Transit,
and
Rail
In the
past several months, the Direct Action Groups extensively interviewed industry
representatives, studied transportation system vulnerabilities, evaluated
security protocols and procedures, and developed recommendations to improve
security across the transportation network.
This
brings me to a key piece of our transportation security effort – securing our
nation’s ports and maritime transportation system – a very high
priority for the Bush Administration and for the Department of Transportation.
Maritime
commerce is the most dominant component of our international trade
infrastructure, carrying over 95 percent of the volume of U.S. overseas foreign
trade.
With more
than 25,000 miles of navigable channels and nearly 300 ports, our Nation’s
maritime system is a vital transportation link and presents one of our greatest
security challenges.
Mayor
Morial, Mayor Hahn, you, as well as all of the Mayors of our port cities,
understand, first-hand, how the terrorist events of September 11th
have placed the spotlight on our marine transportation network.
As Service
Secretary of the United States Coast Guard, I could not be more proud of the
performance of the men and women who have stepped up to the challenge of
protecting our nation’s shores and waterways.
The Coast Guard has dramatically
increased patrols, instituted Naval Vessel Protection Zones, and put security
zones in place around sensitive facilities.
Another
new port security measure – the Sea Marshals pilot program deftly balances
the needs of commerce with the needs of national security.
Similar in concept to the Federal Aviation Administration’s Air Marshal
Program, the Sea Marshal program places armed Coast Guardsmen in the pilothouse,
the engine room, and the after steering room of large commercial vessels to
ensure that the local transit pilot maintains control of the vessel while
transiting the port.
We have
issued emergency rules establishing a 96-hour notice of arrival requirements for
international shipping, and we anticipate making that rule permanent.
And, to
bolster our efforts, the House and Senate recently agreed to appropriate $93
million in competitive grants to finance the costs of enhancing facility and
operational security for critical seaports.
We have
been working closely with the Congress on a range of issues relating to port and
maritime security, and I was very
pleased that the Senate, before the
Christmas recess, passed legislation that would significantly enhance our
capabilities in this area.
And we are
looking forward to working with the House of Representatives in the coming weeks
as we continue to move forward on that issue.
Internally,
the Administration is taking additional steps to identify and meet
threats to our maritime security.
One of the
efforts now underway is a Container Working Group we have established jointly
with the U.S. Customs Service to develop recommendations to address the security
challenges posed by cargo containers.
The White
House’s Office of Homeland Security has appointed the DOT/Customs group as the
lead group on this issue, and we
have been joined in this effort by partners across the federal government.
Containers
are inherently intermodal –
they arrive by sea, by truck, by rail and by air
-- and our border security efforts require that all the modes of
entry be covered.
The
Container Group has been tasked with providing its initial recommendations by
February 1st, and the group will continue its efforts after that date
to push for implementation of those improvements.
The range
of issues facing us in the world of transportation is daunting
-- and many of those
challenges are unprecedented. As a
Department, and as a country, I know that we are up to the job of meeting those
challenges, but we will continue to need your help to do the job right.
We look
forward to working closely with you, and with your administrations and police
departments in the coming months and years to provide premium protection while
also ensuring that the needs of travelers and airlines are met.
We are
building a system that will be robust and redundant, and we will be relentless
in our search for improvements. It
is better today than yesterday; and,
it will be better still tomorrow.
Thank you
very much.
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