Jay Rockefeller: “the day of September 11 has been eloquently described by the preceding speaker, Senator Torricelli. Its consequences are…”

“the day of September 11 has been eloquently described by the preceding speaker, Senator Torricelli. Its consequences are unknown. In fact, one of the great questions none of us can answer at this point is: What are the unintended consequences of what will follow this attack over a period of weeks and months? However, this is not our purpose. Our purpose is to get an aviation security bill done. That is why this Senator from West Virginia chooses to speak. I wish to make a couple of very clear points. We have not yet passed an aviation security bill. There were those who said, no, you cannot work on the aviation industry's financial condition until you have done an aviation security bill. That was an understandable argument, as well as those who talk about people who have lost their jobs. There really was not much point in doing an aviation security bill if there weren't any airplanes flying. That had to be done as a first order of business. They are flying. They have picked up a modest amount of business. It has increased about 7 percent in the last week, but they are still in a very bad position, even with the money we gave them after forcing them to ground all of their airplanes for a period of time. In any event, that and the loan guarantees part is done and so now we move on to aviation security, which we ought to do.”