Hal Rogers: “It is just not so that anyone can place cargo on a passenger plane without it being checked and screened. That is…”

“It is just not so that anyone can place cargo on a passenger plane without it being checked and screened. That is incorrect. We have a very sophisticated system in place today that verifies whether or not you are a known and trusted shipper. If you are not so certified by the government after having been investigated and your background checked and all of those procedures, if you are not a known shipper, they will search your packages you put on the passenger plane. The gentleman is incorrect, and I do not want it to be said nor heard around the world that you can get by with the things he said. You cannot. Today you cannot. And yet in this bill, in the conference report, we direct the Secretary to research, procure and install machinery that can x-ray all this cargo going on passenger planes. We do not have the equipment today to do that, and so we rely upon the known shipper program; and if you are not a known shipper, we personally inspect your cargo.”