Diane Watson: “when anthrax was discovered on Capitol Hill two weeks ago, the House Leadership acted quickly and prudently to protect…”

“when anthrax was discovered on Capitol Hill two weeks ago, the House Leadership acted quickly and prudently to protect Congressional employees from the threat of terrorism. I support that decision. But the speed with which Congress moved to protect itself stands in stark contrast with our failure to provide for the security of the flying public. Mr. Speaker, it has been fifty days since September 11th, and yet the House of Representatives has still not acted to pass an airline security bill. It has been forty days since the House of Representatives voted to authorize a fifteen billion dollar bailout for the airlines, and yet the House still has not passed an airline security bill. It has been twenty days since the other body voted unanimously to provide for airline security, and still, the House has not yet passed an airline security bill. You might think that this delay was because our leaders were searching for a novel approach, or a well-calibrated solution. But, in fact, it was because of a partisan dispute about whether the screeners should be Federal employees. This despite that the fact that an overwhelming majority of Americans have said that they want the Federal Government to run airport security. In the wake of the September 11th attacks, Americans asked for, and received, an outpouring of bipartisan leadership from their elected officials.”