Jay Rockefeller: “it is my honor today to join the distinguished cochairmen of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee…”

“it is my honor today to join the distinguished cochairmen of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, Senators Ted Stevens and Daniel Inouye, along with our colleagues Senators Byron Dorgan, Frank Lautenberg, Mark Pryor, Barbara Boxer, Maria Cantwell, Hillary Clinton, and Chuck Schumer, to introduce the Transportation Security Improvements Act of 2005. This is a vitally important contribution to the security of all Americans, and I commend it to my colleagues for their consideration. The Transportation Security Improvements Act will increase authorizations for the Transportation Security Administration, TSA, by more than $19 billion through fiscal year 2008, and will forthrightly address continuing vulnerabilities in the security of our various transportation modes that Congress and the administration have as yet virtually ignored. Americans were shocked to learn just how lax our aviation security was on September 11. Even those terrorists on official Government watch lists, who should have been barred from entering the United States, were able to board planes that they then turned into weapons without any significant interference from airport security staffs. As a wounded Nation tried to overcome the horrors of that day, Congress immediately went about fixing what was so obviously wrong with our aviation security.…”