Date: 2012-12-12
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Madam Speaker. I rise in strong support of S. 3542. the "NoHassle Flying Act of 2012." This legislation. proposed by the Obama Administration and introduced by the Senator from Minnesota. Ms. KLOBUCHAR. was passed by the Senate with unanimous support and should receive the support of the House today. By relieving the need to rescreen every piece of baggage arriving in the United States from countries where we have strong bonds and screening agreements in place. efficiencies will be realized and our screeners can focus more attention on those items we know least about. That is the kind of risk based screening that I and my fellow members of the Committee on Homeland Security have been calling for. Thankfully. under Administrator Pistoles leadership. are calls are being heeded. This legislation represents the kind of common sense security measure this Congress must focus on to make both the Department of Homeland Security and its components work more efficiently and effectively. It is my hope that in the next Congress we will see more proposals on the House floor regarding the Transportation Security Administration that can garner bipartisan support. During the 111th Congress. during my tenure as Chair of the Committee on Homeland Securitys Subcommittee on Transportation Security. the House considered and passed the TSA Authorization bill that I authored with overwhelming bipartisan support. Unfortunately. no such legislation was produced for consideration by the House this Congress. I look forward to working with my colleagues on the Committee in the next Congress to ensure we get back to the work of authorizing the critical programs of the TSA. Our airports are a critical point of entry to our nation. and our airplanes remain vulnerable to terrorist plots as a result of their inherent potential to cause massive destruction and human casualties. In the aftermath of the September 11. 2001 attacks. which exposed significant vulnerabilities in our airport security. the 107th Congress moved quickly to pass the Aviation and Transportation Security Act. The Transportation Security Act created the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and mandated a federalized workforce of security screeners to inspect airline passengers and their baggage. The act gave TSA broad authority to assess vulnerabilities in aviation security and take steps to mitigate these risks. As Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Transportation on the Committee on Homeland Security. I have an acute understanding of TSAs role in aviation security. which has been the subject of considerable congressional oversight. Moreover. this issue is one that impacts my constituents immensely. as my district is home to the Houston Airport System. which is one of North Americas largest public airport systems and includes George Bush Intercontinental Airport. William P. Hobby Airport. and Ellington Airport. In 2010. the Houston Airport System served more than 49.5 million passengers. including more than 8.5 million international travelers. The American people expect Members of Congress to ensure that when they board a plane for business or pleasure. all passengers and their accompanying baggage have been thoroughly screened so as to prevent terrorists and their tools of destruction from posing a danger to passengers. This issue is something that we understand as Members of Congress. many of us. including myself. fly on commercial airlines when we travel to and from our respective districts. Like the rest of the public. we expect that when we board a flight. it is secure and that we will safely arrive at our destinations within a reasonable amount of time. While we should balance the need for thorough screening with the ideals of speed and convenience. we must continue to ensure that we are doing whatever is necessary to protect passengers on commercial flights from the dangers of terrorism. We know that many Americans and others traveling to our country are often frustrated by the time it may take to have themselves and their baggage processed through airports. This bill intends to ameliorate some of these delays associated with the rescreening of baggage transported on commercial flights originating from international locations. This would be achieved by giving the Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security the discretion to waive rescreening pursuant to a preclearance agreement between the United States and a foreign nation that seeks to ensure that adequate screening procedures were undertaken at the point of origin. The idea is that baggage that has already been adequately screened by one airport does not need to be screened again once it arrives at one of our airports. As Members of Congress. we should continue to look for areas in our airport security procedures that we can modify in order to make travel more convenient for passengers that do not compromise their safety.