John Kerry: “It is Thursday of almost the fifth or sixth week since September 11. We still have not passed aviation security in the…”

“It is Thursday of almost the fifth or sixth week since September 11. We still have not passed aviation security in the U.S. Congress. I cannot impress upon my colleagues enough how much I hear from aviation personnel, from law enforcement personnel, and from people throughout our country, how we are beginning to press the line of irresponsibility in our not having moved on this. There is a reason our economy is still hurting. There are many reasons. None of them are going to be solved by any one single component. We understand that. We began September with a huge overhang in the telecommunications industry. All of us knew the stocks in the marketplace were significantly overvalued. There was almost a decline taking place prior to September 11. But we have a responsibility to do everything in our power to begin to turn the economy around and to protect a lot of our citizens who are beginning to feel a lot of economic pain. One of the principal ways we can do that is in the stimulus package itself, as well as in passing aviation security.”