John Mica: “this is not a time to come before the House of Representatives or the American people and make charges that are not…”

“this is not a time to come before the House of Representatives or the American people and make charges that are not correct. Every Member in this body wants to make certain that their family is secure, that every American is secure as they travel our airways. I have had the great honor and privilege of working with the ranking member of the full committee, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar), and the ranking member of the subcommittee, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Lipinski). We set goals that are very difficult to meet, and I do not think that we should back off from those obligations, but we know that the math does not add up. To accomplish the task that we set forth in the law November 19, the math does not add up. Here is the appropriations that we passed and voted for, and we approved 45,000 employees. Here is a report by the inspector general, the facts. We need 67,000 employees to complete the task. The gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar) and I heard testimony that in fact they can only produce 800 machines because we have missed the deadline by the delay in the appropriations measure, in passing the supplemental appropriations measure. What we have is the potential, if we pass this, of leaving a state of chaos and disorder for the December deadline. We do not need chaos and disorder; we need the plan that has been put together first by the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms.…”