Political Quotes

“at 1:45 p.m. today, we are going to vote on the FAA bill. It is coming back, in essence, as a conference report, although it was negotiated directly with the House. So we will take up the House message. I thank Senator Thune, the chairman of the committee, because the two of us, of course, get along, and we have worked together to achieve an agreement with our counterparts in the House. So I thank Senator Thune. There were parts of this bill that he basically said for me to work them out with the Republican chairman in the House, and the work product is the proof in the pudding that we are going to take up today. This is a little more than a 14-month extension, but don't let that fool you because it is going to put into permanent law bolstering security at our airports in order to help better protect us. Of course, in these times, the safety of our traveling public is a top priority. In fact, it contains some of the most significant aviation security reforms that Congress has ever considered, and we have considered, as the Presiding Officer can remember, a lot since September 11, 2001. It also contains a number of consumer protection and drone safety provisions. So let me just enumerate a couple of those. To address the insider threat posed by terrorists, we increase the vetting requirements and random physical screenings of airport employees.…”