Sheila Jackson Lee: “I thank the gentleman from New Jersey. I thank the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Walden), the sponsor of this bill, as well…”

“I thank the gentleman from New Jersey. I thank the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Walden), the sponsor of this bill, as well as the numbers of individuals who came to the floor. I chaired the Subcommittee on Transportation Security of the Committee on Homeland Security some years ago and happily remain on that committee because I do think it has a crucial and important role. I do believe in your cause and in this legislation. We like to think of rural America as being tranquil areas. But in light of the recent incident in Brussels, many of us who are students of aviation security are well aware of a number of elements of weakness, period. Whether or not it is the perimeters of the airports or ingress and egress of airports, whether or not it is the access of employees, of which we make no general indictment of the hardworking individuals who work at airports, but we know that the ingress and egress in many of our large airports still gives us pause, and now, obviously, the conspicuous utilization of the open space where the terrorists did their havoc in Brussels. We would hope that would not be the case in America, and as well in rural airports. But certainly if a commercial airline comes back to a rural community, they need appropriate security. As we grow in developing our security matrix, they may need security that expands into the outer areas, depending upon risks.…”