James Oberstar

Today, we conclude consideration of the most important aviation security bill in 30 years. Since the beginning of aviation security in 1970, when President Richard Nixon signed an executive order establishing the Federal Air Marshal…

first and foremost among the litany of thanks and appreciation should be the members of the professional staff of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, who worked vigorously over the past several weeks, intensively since…

We could have had an aviation security bill much, much, much sooner. Yes, the Senate bill was not a great product, but it was passed a month ago, and this body could have acted before that or soon thereafter. We have been working 2- and…

One of the reasons that the Aviation Security Act of 1990 was so long in reaching fruition is that the rules required to implement the provisions of law had to go through excruciating cost-benefit analyses. One of the matters in which…

Mr. Speaker, I too join the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Ganske) in acknowledging and with great appreciation the role of the Speaker who repeatedly brought Members together to discuss the content of an aviation security bill and pressed on…

I include for the Record at this point a summary of the aviation security conference agreement. SUMMARY--Aviation Security Conference Agreement Jurisdiction Airport security will be placed under the jurisdiction of a new Transportation…

H.R. 2841 is a bill to designate the court of international trade in New York City in honor of Judge James L. Watson. Judge Watson, a native New Yorker born in Harlem in 1922, lived and worked his entire life in New York. He served in the…

Mr. Speaker, we had a very lively and in-depth debate last week on the aviation security measure pending before us, and I again wish to express my appreciation to the chairman for the distinguished manner in which he conducted the debate…

I share the objective of the distinguished chairman to get to an early resolution. I do have to cite some misconceptions about the number of screeners that would be required in the proposal that I offer on behalf of the Members on our side…

I think we have the same goals at heart, but we cannot ignore what is happening. I realize that the chairman says this is in the past. We can only talk about what is in the past. If we talk about what is going to happen in the future…

Mr. Chairman, 7 weeks since the tragedy of September 11, 3 weeks since the Senate passed an airline security bill by a vote of 100 to zero. The delay in bringing this bill to the floor until now has put tens of thousands of American…

Mr. Chairman, we have the best military in the world, the best law enforcement agencies and the best firefighters. All of these are government-run organizations that successfully protect the public. And the public deserves the government's…

Mr. Chairman, today we will finally address aviation security, given 7 weeks after the tragic events of September 11. Today, public safety is threatened by an unprecedented event. War has been declared on the American people. Therefore, it…

In response to the last commentary about the provision referring to citizenship, there are two types of nationals: citizens of the United States who are both citizens and nationals, and nationals of American Samoa and Swains Island, who…

we have come to the close of a very agonizing debate, a very fair, very open exchange. But you cannot have it both ways. The last speaker said, you do not have these protections. You do not have all these safeguards for Federal workers…

once again I want to express my great appreciation and admiration for the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Ganske), who stood on a matter of principle and stood against some very powerful forces within his own party. On a matter of this…

Mr. Speaker, in light of the great confusion and dissatisfaction about the process that has led us to this point on the pending measure covered by the proposed rule, it seems to me that we ought rather to be spending our time dealing with…

I would just say to the distinguished acting majority leader that in the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure we have worked very diligently on a bipartisan basis sharing ideas, coming to agreement on virtually all items in an…

We are gathered here tonight because of one cataclysmic day in the storied history of aviation. Not to rescue an industry from its mistakes but to restore an industry because it was attacked as a symbol of American democracy, of our…

Mr. Speaker, today, Congress blew an ideal opportunity to continue the bipartisan unity it had so nobly demonstrated during the past ten days. This bill could have provided critical aid to an industry in deep financial crisis as well as to…

Mr. Speaker, that cataclysmic event that occurred a week ago brought this Nation together at the very same time that it tore us asunder. We are here tonight to attempt to thread together shattered pieces of our economy, the torn hearts and…

Amidst the plethora of concerns addressed in this legislative package, I want to signal out the first line of attack in this terrorist incident; that is the Nation's airlines. The current conditions in the airlines sector could lead to a…

Mr. Speaker, the last point I want to make is we have to be very careful when we pass loan guarantee legislation that we establish conditionality. I mean banks establish conditionality. The World Bank, the IMF established conditionality…

The events of Tuesday, as the chairman has already expressed, have thrown the airline industry, as the first line of target of terrorism, into an absolute tailspin. The industry has been shut down. It has no revenue streaming in, it has…

Yesterday I stood up within the Democratic Caucus and I said, ``It is going to be necessary, in my judgment, to come to the assistance of the airline industry of the United States.'' I said that I believe that our financial institution and…