Jay Rockefeller: “It will take some time. People should understand that. We cannot take a workforce without sufficient training and…”

“It will take some time. People should understand that. We cannot take a workforce without sufficient training and upgrade it in a day, in a month. You don't quickly reconfigure airplanes in the way we will have to with sky marshals, through cockpit arrangements. It will take time. People need to understand that. If they want airport security totally now, we can give them a lot of that, but we cannot give it all to them immediately; it will take time. The federalization will give people confidence this will be done at the highest level. We have anti-hijack training for pilots and flight attendants. We propose to pay for this with passenger security fees, authorizing DOT to reimburse airports for the costs incurred by them since September 11. Most have no idea that is coming, but it is. We will help them pay their costs. We will give airports temporary flexibility to pay for their security responsibilities under the AIP program. They can't do that now. We will give them that flexibility. They can pay for security equipment and infrastructure, but they cannot pay for any direct expenditures such as salaries and the rest. It will be a very good bill. We are looking at security with biometric and hand-retina recognition devices. As the bill comes before us and as we debate it, there can be no higher order of magnitude for our Senate concentration than this bill as it emerges. I strongly urge my colleagues to support it.”