Kay Bailey Hutchison: “we are trying to move to the bill that will upgrade aviation security in our country. I hope we can work out an…”

“we are trying to move to the bill that will upgrade aviation security in our country. I hope we can work out an agreement that will allow us to start debating the aviation security bill. What we are all trying to do is get a bill that is just on aviation security. There are a lot of other issues people want to bring up that are quite legitimate issues, but I do not think we should put them on a bill dealing with aviation security because this issue is the one we need to address right now. It is a separate issue, and it should be kept separate. If we can assure the flying public that everything that can be done is being done to upgrade aviation security, that will mitigate the damage we are seeing to our economy as a result of a smaller number of flights and smaller number of people traveling. We want to bring back the aviation industry. We want people to go on vacations, to travel for business, just as they did before September 11. We want people to stay in the hotels and rent the cars so the economy does not experience a domino effect from airlines not flying and people being afraid to get on with their daily lives. We understand why people are concerned. I have been flying every weekend since September 11. I know their concerns. We need to address the security issue so people will know they can fly and this, in effect, will begin to rebuild our economy.”