Bill Pascrell: “Simply put, this is a good bill. Many Members on both sides of the aisle have worked tirelessly to bring the critical…”

“Simply put, this is a good bill. Many Members on both sides of the aisle have worked tirelessly to bring the critical legislation to finality; and while I think it could have been improved if those of us on the conference committee were given a chance to offer further amendments, I wish to remind the chairman, last night, ultimately, this is still a good product. There is no doubt that authorizing $400 million in port security grants for each of the fiscal years of 2007 to 2012 is a wise undertaking, as is creating firm deadlines to require the Department of Homeland Security to issue transportation worker identification cards to workers with access to secure areas of ports. No one should be allowed into those ports that do not have a proper card and a proper identification; and we should really carry this over to those folks who work at our airports, which we have not done.”