David Weldon: “today I rise to express my view of H.R. 1, The 9/11 Conference Report. I commend the bipartisan group that worked…”

“today I rise to express my view of H.R. 1, The 9/11 Conference Report. I commend the bipartisan group that worked together on this bill, which on balance is a good bill, although I do have reservations about some provisions of the bill. There are some very good provisions in this bill, which were not part of the House-passed bill. I am pleased that many of the significant problems in the version of this bill that passed the House in January have been removed from the final conference report that we are voting on today. This bill no longer contains the provisions that place the collective bargaining policies of Transportation Security Administration, TSA, employees above the homeland security needs of the American people. This was a troubling provision that was included in the original House-passed version of this bill. It was troubling because collective bargaining rights would have interfered with the ability of the Department of Homeland Security and the TSA to impose the best work policies and procedures possible in order to make our Nation safer. It would have interfered with the ability to fully and quickly implement security-based policies. I am pleased that the Conference Report contains a provision that grants immunity from civil lawsuits to those who report transportation-related suspicious activities. This is a crucial provision that will free American citizens from the fear of reporting activity that they think is suspicious.”