On the recordDecember 12, 2011
I come to the floor to discuss and pass the Risk-Based Security Screening for Members of the Armed Forces Act. How many times have you been at an airport screening line, you are getting ready to go through the machines that are going to determine you are safe to travel and standing right there in the line is a man or woman in their military fighting gear--their camouflage and their combat boots--and they are having to take off their combat boots, many times in their 2-week R&R period between their stints in Afghanistan or Iraq, and you think: Oh, my gosh. It is unbelievable that our military people--who are putting their lives on the line, who are sacrificing so much--are having to go through a procedure that does not have a commonsense feel about it. Last week, Senator Rockefeller, Senator Burr, and I introduced S. 1954, the Risk-Based Security Screening for Members of the Armed Forces Act. The bill was a modification of the House companion bill that was recently passed by Representative Cravaack from Minnesota in a unanimous decision by the House. It requires the TSA, the Transportation Security Agency, to create a system to speed members of our uniformed services through airport security. I would also like to thank Senators Lieberman and Collins for their input on this piece of legislation. We have all worked hard to move this bill through quickly, and it is the House bill we will be taking up very shortly with the modifications I have mentioned.…
