Eric Swalwell: “As the gentleman from New York pointed out, over the last 11 years we have had zero attacks on our airlines where a…”

“As the gentleman from New York pointed out, over the last 11 years we have had zero attacks on our airlines where a knife was involved. Zero attacks. That number cannot get better. However, as we saw on September 11, that number-- tragically--can get much worse. So I rise in support of the Grimm-Markey-Cook-Swalwell-Reed-Jackson Lee amendment, which would prevent the Transportation Security Administration from changing its prohibitive item list--also known as the PIL--and allowing small knives on airplanes. I want to thank the amendment's cosponsors for their hard work on this issue. I also want to thank TSA Administrator John Pistole. Administrator Pistole announced today that the TSA will not allow knives on airplanes. I think this is a strong step forward. And after listening to the stakeholders, his position is now that these knives should not be on airplanes. Like many Americans in our country, I was deeply concerned and confounded when the administrator announced that they would consider allowing knives on airplanes. We saw after September 11 that, as my friend from New York mentioned, zero attacks occurred in our country. We do now have new threats. The threat from liquids or IEDs could seriously jeopardize the safety of airlines and the passengers who ride on them. However, just because we have new threats that are posed against our airline safety does not mean that we should no longer consider old threats.…”