Rights for Transportation Security Officers Act of 2020

Floor Speech

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Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Chair, I thank the gentleman for yielding time.

Mr. Chair, we have worked long and hard on crafting a bill that I am convinced would be in the best interests of those TSO employees who work diligently to keep us safe, making sure that all is well when we fly in and out of Washington as Members of Congress, as well as the 450 airports all around the United States.

They do a good job, but they are not treated fairly.

We want to make sure, in this instance, with the amendment, that we improve on the bill. So I rise in support of the amendment offered by my colleague, Mr. Peters from California.

TSA takes pride in hiring veterans and reports that a quarter of its workforce is comprised of veterans. That is a good thing.

Still, there are questions about the way TSA uses its personnel flexibilities when it comes to recruiting and hiring veterans.

The Peters amendment would require the Government Accountability Office to conduct a study of TSA's recruitment process, including its recruitment of veterans. This amendment will improve the underlying bill by ensuring that, as TSA moves forward under title 5, it does so in a way that recruits and retains veterans.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment.

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Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Chair, I appreciate the gentleman yielding me the time.

Let me be clear. This bill enhances opportunities for TSOs. It increases the possibility of them getting employment by putting them on the GS schedule for Federal employees, so I am somewhat mystified that a bill that is designed to bring a group of employees into a system that all other Federal employees are in is somehow penalizing those employees.

The very intent of this bill is to level the playing field for TSOs, who, everybody agrees, are doing a wonderful job, so I continue to be somewhat baffled by the arguments against it.

I support the gentleman from Maryland's amendment. This amendment adds additional language to the bill to reiterate Congress' intent that TSA employees should have the same protections and benefits as the rest of the Federal workforce.

This current system that we have is not working for TSA employees. All you have to do is talk to them. When you go through the airports, just ask them: ``Are you happy with how you are being treated and paid right now?'' Without a doubt, they will tell you: ``No.'' So this is to fix it.

I compliment the gentleman from Maryland's strengthening of the intent of this legislation. But, more importantly, the bargaining unit that represents the employees, the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents all the TSOs, all 46,000, they are in support of it.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support the amendment.

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Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Chairman, I am happy to rise in support of the amendment offered by the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Kim).

Federal air marshals are an essential component of the layered aviation security system that was created in the wake of the September 11 attacks. Every day, these quiet heroes keep the flying public safe.

As Representative Kim's amendment recognizes, there are some major personnel changes within FAMS that need timely attention. I commend the gentleman from New Jersey for introducing this amendment to direct TSA to aggressively take on the mental health and morale challenges within this subset of the TSA workforce.

Again, I compliment the gentleman for his amendment and urge support.

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Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the amendment offered by the gentleman from California (Mr. Cisneros).

Let me be clear. We want to do all we can for our veterans. They have done a tremendous job defending us all over the world. The least we can do is when they return, or, unfortunately, when they don't return through tragedy, we take care of the families by offering them employment.

This is a simple, commonsense amendment that I would hope there would be no disagreement on. All this does is provide the same language that we use for all other title 5 employees, which the intent of the overall bill is to bring everybody under the same system.

So, I rise in support of the gentleman from California's amendment and ask for its approval.

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Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

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Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Chairman, I compliment the gentlewoman from Virginia in offering this amendment.

Recently, the intelligence community raised national security concerns about the TikTok app and its ties to China. As we always and have been continuously informed, the Chinese are trying to get information on what we are doing every day of the week, every month, all the year. In response to this, TSA banned the use of TikTok by TSA employees on government-provided devices.

Representative Spanberger's amendment is to be commended for recognizing that national security concerns about this app and successor apps will not go away over time and for authorizing this amendment to be codified in law.

With that, Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment.

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Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

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Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Committee do now rise.

The motion was agreed to.

Accordingly, the Committee rose; and the Speaker pro tempore (Ms. Mucarsel-Powell) having assumed the chair, Mr. Brown of Maryland, Acting Chair of the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union, reported that that Committee, having had under consideration the bill (H.R. 1140) to enhance the security operations of the Transportation Security Administration and stability of the transportation security workforce by applying the personnel system under title 5, United States Code, to employees of the Transportation Security Administration who provide screening of all passengers and property, and for other purposes, had come to no resolution thereon.

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