- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The
U.S. Senate has unanimously approved a bill to strengthen aviation security
-- including a provision that would allow pilots to carry guns -- as it
tries to prevent a repeat of the September 11 attacks.
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- The measure would also require government employees to
take over baggage screening and authorise the government to put an armed
air marshal on every flight to prevent hijackers from taking over aircraft
and using them as missiles, as they did on the attacks on the Pentagon
and the World Trade Centre.
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- An amendment to the bill allows pilots to carry guns
if they have the right training and if the guns are approved by the Federal
Aviation Administration, Texas Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison,
a said.
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- "It's been one month after the attack. We in the
United States Senate are taking a major step in ensuring this kind of thing
can never happen again," said Sen. John McCain, Republican of Arizona,
who co-sponsored the bill along with South Carolina Democrat Sen. Ernest
Hollings and Hutchison.
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- But it is far from certain that the measure will become
law. In the House of Representatives, many Republicans are opposed to a
government takeover of baggage screening. They are working on a bill but
it has yet to be introduced.
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- Hutchison said the Senate action should wake up the
House.
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- "I think the overwhelming vote in the Senate for
this very solid bill will surely call on the House to either to take up
our bill or take up their own," she said. "We understand there
will be disagreements between the two bodies, but not to act at all is
not the right approach."
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- DELAYED ACTION
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- The measure passed by the Senate requires that federal
workers, rather than private employees, screen bags at the nation's largest
142 airports. Screeners at other airports could be federal, state, or local
government employees.
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- All bags, including those that are checked, will have
to be X-rayed under the measure, lawmakers said.
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- Hollings said the bill's price tag is up to $1.9 billion
a year, with the airlines allowed to assess a charge of at least $2.50
per ticket to pay for it.
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- The Hollings-McCain measure had been stuck in the Senate
for over a week while lawmakers haggled over the baggage screening and
whether the bill should also help over 100,000 laid-off airline workers
and upgrade rail service and safety.
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- In the end proposals to help displaced workers and Amtrak
were forced to wait as senators decided it was more important to pass the
airport safety provisions now.
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- Sen. Jean Carnahan, Democrat of Missouri, reluctantly
withdrew her proposal to give benefits to laid-off airline workers in the
face of Republican delaying tactics, but she vowed to reintroduce it at
another date.
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- Sen. Joseph Biden, Democrat of Delaware, agreed to
withdraw
his amendment to beef up Amtrak after Hollings introduced legislation to
help Amtrak as well as other passenger and freight rail operations with
cash outlays and loan guarantees.
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- Congressional leaders had sought to craft a bill that
could pass both chambers with White House approval, a feat achieved with
other major legislation since the Sept. 11 attacks.
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- But in the end, the Senate went ahead with its
version.
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- Aides said the Republican leadership in Transportation
committee would introduce a bill either Friday or next week calling for
a public-private partnership in screening, with federal managers setting
standards for private screeners. This would be similar to a proposal by
President George W. Bush.
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- Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta indicated last
week that the administration was willing to compromise with the Senate
on the bag screening issue. But some leading House Republicans, such as
majority whip Rep. Tom Delay of Texas, have declared they do not intend
to add some 18,000 bag screeners to the federal payroll.
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- Aides said Democrats were thinking about putting forward
their own bill in the House -- which would probably embrace government-run
baggage screening -- if bipartisanship failed.
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