Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, colleagues, there are two areas of unfunded mandates issues that are of great concern to me in the field of aviation. One is security; the other is safety. Security measures should not be subject to a mere point of order, that they could be stricken by a single point of order made against a measure that would improve security for American air travelers at home and abroad, at our airports and abroad, our airlines and foreign airlines. Certainly an issue of that matter ought to be subject to a majority vote, but not by a simple point of order. A motion to strike is always in order. But a point of order against a matter so important as security, this legislation would undermine, would gut, the ability of Congress and Federal agencies to impose needed security and safety measures on airport operators and on United States and foreign airlines. All major airports are now run by agencies of State or local government. When we consider laws that we have enacted in the past, that would have been jeopardized by a provision such as this had it been in effect at the time we enacted or brought on to the floor such legislation. On December 21, 1988, terrorists succeeded in blowing PanAm 103 out of the skies over Lockerbie, Scotland; 270 of our fellow citizens died in that tragedy.”