Eric Swalwell: “Moments ago, the TSA Administrator announced that he will reverse his earlier decision to allow knives back onto…”

“Moments ago, the TSA Administrator announced that he will reverse his earlier decision to allow knives back onto airplanes. Knives will now continue to be a part of the prohibited items list on our aircraft, making our passengers and our crew more safe. This is positive news. However, the administration's desire to zero out this FFDO program-- allowing our trained pilots to be armed on the aircraft--puts us in a position that will put us more at risk, will put passengers and flight crew more at risk. The TSA not allowing knives on planes, that's just one step for passenger and crew safety when we need a comprehensive approach to keep our passengers and crew safe, which would include not allowing knives on planes, which would include risk-based screening, which would include, as my friends from the other side have talked about, increasing funding for intelligence operations to make sure we know who is getting on these airplanes. But it would also mean keeping the Federal Flight Deck Officer program fully funded. This is a program I know about because of a personal friend in Livermore, California, who is a Southwest pilot. I have seen firsthand over the last 7 years how serious he has trained to be ready for this program. As my friend and colleague from the other side just mentioned, they fly down to Texas routinely to train down there, and they are very diligent. They do this many times on their own dime.…”