Lynn C. Woolsey: “I believe we have been forced to view aviation security in a brand new way. These past events emphasize that aviation…”

“I believe we have been forced to view aviation security in a brand new way. These past events emphasize that aviation security is vital to our national security, but also to our national economy. We have to get people back on airplanes. We cannot run the business of this Nation if people will not fly from one place to another. We are in very unfamiliar territory now, and we have to carefully assess what constitutes appropriate responses in this very new world that we are living in because whatever our response, we will leave a permanent mark on the lives of the American people. If Congress passes the aviation security measure that the House passed last week, I believe that the American people will know, they will not be surprised, and we cannot fool them that we have passed a status quo proposal. We will not have passed the best proposal. The public will know that we passed a measure to keep those same private companies in charge that... are still in charge of security. The public will know that as Members of Congress we did not rise to the occasion and we will not pass the remedies that were desperately needed.”