James Oberstar: “Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time, and I want to address the issue the…”

“Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time, and I want to address the issue the gentleman from California (Mr. Horn) raised in the well about the rest of the flight crew, the flight attendants, on board the plane. It was absolutely positively the intention of the Members of this House and those who drafted the aviation security bill last fall that they would get adequate training, both in the issues of self-defense and crew coordination, and all the things that are necessary for those people who are so exposed on the other side of those doors that are slightly reinforced at this point in time. Unfortunately, many of the airlines, because of the expense and the inconvenience in scheduling involved, have chosen to either stiff or short that training requirement: a 15-minute video on self-defense. And having studied a number of martial arts, I can tell my colleagues that that is not going to do much for a lot of people. As I spoke here earlier, we are using flight attendants directly. In the case of United's policy, they wheel out the food cart and they stand behind it, and they are supposed to defend the flight deck while that door is open against terrorists, after having watched the 15-minute video. There has been no serious consideration by the administration of whether or not nonlethal devices or other things should be made available to the flight attendants.”