John W. Olver: “every member of this house understands that the airline industry has been devastated by the terrorism of September 11th.…”

“every member of this house understands that the airline industry has been devastated by the terrorism of September 11th. We must provide help to the airline industry. I am sure we will do that today. This bill today aids the airline companies and by all accounts they need aid. United, American, Delta, Northwest, and US Airways are laying off 20-25% of their workforces and cutting 25% of their routes. But this bill provides no parallel aid for the nearly 100,000 direct employees who are losing their jobs. Furthermore, this bill does not even contemplate the spinoff losses of jobs in the travel and tourism industry, the hotels and restaurants, the resorts and travel services. This is a severe inequity. Beyond that, this bill does absolutely nothing to assure the American public that they can travel safely in this new world that the terrorism of September 11th has imposed on us all. Yesterday, in a joint hearing, the Senate and House Transportation Subcommittees on Appropriations heard powerful testimony by the FAA, GAO, and Inspector General documenting the utterly porous security systems operated by the airlines.”