Political Quotes

“it is now widely acknowledged that our Government and our intelligence agencies were not properly prepared for dealing with the events that led up to September 11th and its aftermath. We are spending enormous sums of money to convince the public that we are taking action to make our country safer, in some instances we may actually be making things worse. The project proposed by the bill from the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee was a cautious attempt to test a new approach to airline safety. As amended, however, it could potentially arm all airline pilots, removes the testing and automatic review of the new program and raises serious concerns about its operation. Furthermore, this bill has little support from the industry, law enforcement officials or the Bush administration. There are simple and effective safety solutions that deserve our support. Over a decade ago, industry and security experts strongly recommended that cockpit doors be reinforced to prevent plane hijackings but to little avail. Although it was included as part of last fall's airline security bill, it will be another year before all cockpit doors are sufficiently reinforced. We still have not completely dealt with the basic issues of airline security, such as baggage screening. The fundamental notion that we arm people, be they classroom teachers, pilots, or Members of Congress is no substitute for appropriate security.”