Rick Allen: “Aviation security is one area where we need action and we need action now. I mean, we are hung up in this ideological…”

“Aviation security is one area where we need action and we need action now. I mean, we are hung up in this ideological debate about whether the security screeners at airports should be Federal employees or not; and the leadership on the other side here does not want any more Federal employees, as if that were a bad thing in itself. We know, of course, that if the security screeners were Federal employees, they would be paid probably twice as much, they would have some benefits, and they would stay on the job longer than the average of 9 months, which is the average length of time that a security screener in this country now stays on the job. Now, we have done a contrast here with the bioterrorism act that House Democrats have put together, but there are so many other ways to go at this problem. Mr. Speaker, it is interesting that the Democratic Chair of the Committee on Budget in the other body and the ranking Republican in the other body and the Republican Chair of the Committee on the Budget in the House and the ranking Democrat on the Committee on the Budget in the House, those four leading budget experts came together and they said, we need a stimulus package that is focused on the near term, focused on the next year, and that any tax cuts that are enacted should be temporary.”