Date: 2007-06-14
Speaker: CORRINE BROWN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Mr. Chairman. I rise today to ask support for my amendment to allow Orlando International Airport and Miami International Airport to be named as two of the seven airports selected to implement a pilot program to screen airport workers who enter or reenter security airport space. My interest in this stems from a very serious security breach which occurred at the Orlando International Airport. OIA. earlier this year. On March 5. a Comair customer service employee boarded a Delta flight from Orlando International to San Juan. carrying 13 handguns. 1 assault weapon and 8 pounds of marijuana. Although passengers and flight crews are required to pass through screening to obtain access to gates. mechanics and other airline employees move through the airport without being screened. In fact. the men that were arrested had employee identification that allowed them to bypass screening altogether when they brought a duffel bag full of handguns into the airport. This serves as a perfect example of a striking gap in airline security. not only at OIA. but at airports nationwide. Moreover. given an employee was willing to take the risk of smuggling illegal weapons and drugs into a flight for a few thousand dollars. one would certainly imagine that it would be possible that the airline employee could be bribed by wellfinanced terrorists to obtain access to the airport infrastructure. In response to this incident. report language in the bill required a pilot program for seven airports nationwide to mandate the screening of all employees as prescribed in H.R. 1314. Of the seven airport pilot projects mentioned in the report language. my amendment would require that the Orlando International Airport and the Miami International Airport be named two of the designated programs. Miami International. in fact. already had a program in place. while Orlando International has undertaken a plan to screen 100 percent of all of its employees. Given the heavy international traffic at both of these airports. I strongly believe that they serve as perfect places to. begin a program which eventually needs to be implemented at all airports nationwide. The reason I include Miami is because Miami can be used as a model. since the airport has had a program in place for nearly a decade and spends about $5 million per year for this type of security. The Miami program has reduced smuggling by all employees. Under this program. all airport and airline employees are screened. though not at the same area as the passengers or flight crews. The Miami program also includes a provision that allows screening to instantly send a suspects image to a New York center that operates aroundtheclock with a staff of former NYPD technicians. As you know. the State of Florida. in particular. thrives on tourism. which forms the backbone of the State economy. Obviously. those traveling in the State need to feel safe during their commute. and increasing and enforcing the security process for airline employees would serve as an important step toward achieving this goal. I realize it is necessary to withdraw this amendment. and I am willing to do so. but this is a very. very serious situation not just for Florida. but for the entire country.. I. want all of us to. work together to ensure that our system does not allow these huge security gaps to continue.