H.R. 71

We have had a very challenging week, Madam Speaker, and I thank you for the time.

It is a time of great patriotism and great respect for the institutions of democracy that this country represents. It is a statement that says that we will not be an offender, but we will be a defender. We will defend our values; we will defend our soil; we will defend the people of the United States.

I have served on the Homeland Security Committee as the dust was rising from the site of 9/11. When I traveled to New York, I walked along sidewalks where there were walls of letters and pictures of loved ones who had not been designated as being lost and people were trying to see if loved ones were in hospitals. I saw the pain. And so the capturing and the demise of Osama bin Laden is the finishing of an era and a story. And we are to commend the President of the United States, the Navy SEALs, the JSOC and intelligence communities, and the United States military and persons around this Nation who are part of this great effort.

Well, we live in a different world now. As the facts are unfolding in Pakistan, as evidence has been reviewed by the various tapes, we know that terrorism and al Qaeda is an active entity around the world. The United States is not the only target, but we are and will continue to be in the eye of the storm.

As we have heard representations from terrorists and to-be leaders and wanna-bes about what they intend to do to retaliate, it is important for us to be responsible with the resources that we have. And so for over a year I have introduced H.R. 71, the FAMS Augmentation bill, the Federal Air Marshal. And I call on, today, for the administration and the Congress to work together to increase the number of air marshals on domestic flights, on long-distance flights, and to increase the numbers of air marshals traveling on inbound flights to the United States. What more do we need?

Over the last couple of days, any series of incidents that have occurred, and thanks to the brave passengers now well aware since 9/11 and flight attendants for whom I have fought consistently to get more training, unarmed, obviously, and many without training, are now being confronted with individuals who are charging now reinforced pilot doors, some going to the exit doors, over the last 4 days a series of incidents that no one knows whether or not they will stop.

Now, we know that some allegations have been that individuals are suffering from mental challenges, and we understand that. We also know that, to date, no one had a weapon, and so the Transportation Security Administration is doing its job. But this is happening. That is what air marshals are for: to protect the traveling public, flying more than they have ever flown, paying higher prices for bags and food, and now we expect them not to be safe and secure. It is time now to augment and to pass H.R. 71 and to increase the number of air marshals.

Now, we have an issue of a deficit and a debt. My question is, as someone would say: Are we going to be penny-wise and pound-foolish? Are we going to not safeguard the American people because there happens to be the mantra on this side of the aisle, Republicans, who don't want to spend a dime for anything? Well, my friends, we have to invest in the American public. We have got to be able to build infrastructure, and at the same time we have got to be responsible spenders.

But I will tell you this. I will take spending for national security any day with bringing home the troops from Afghanistan, because that mission is complete. Now we must invest in American people. And I'm angry about this, that we would be so cheap that we would not provide the resources to give us new and additional trained Federal air marshals, many of whom come from the United States military. Many of these soldiers coming home would make excellent air marshals.

Many of them come from the U.S. Marshals Service and many other marshals services.

What is more precious than the mother and father and children and relatives that are traveling to visit loved ones or for business, and they are coming home to the United States and we are putting them in jeopardy because we do not have the air marshals to protect them against these unknown threats?

So my challenge today is stop being cheap, stop nickel-and-diming security, stop not understanding that we have the responsibility to go ahead and secure the American public. Today I call for more air marshals on the Nation's airplanes, and I call for it now. H.R. 71 should be passed immediately.

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