"Lawmakers Consider Cops on Planes"

Tuesday, September 25, 2001

Lawmakers Consider Cops on Planes


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congressional leaders are looking at putting military
police on airliners to make travelers more confident that they will be
safe from terrorists. 

Lawmakers are also debating whether the government should take over
airport security entirely. 

``We need more marshals or military police or whatever we need to do to
make sure the rest of the passengers are safe,'' Democratic Leader Dick
Gephardt said meeting with President Bush at the White House. 

The Federal Aviation Administration has already begun training marshals
to provide security on airplanes. Federal agencies are being asked to
contribute armed plainclothes security officials. Many of the new
officers will come from the Justice Department. 

Gephardt suggested the military officers serve as a stopgap until more
marshals can be trained. 

``We need in the interim... to get more marshalls on the planes even if
it means dipping into some of the military personnel that's available to
get it done as quickly as possible,'' he said. 

Congress is crafting a broad airport-security bill to address concerns
that have arisen since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The Bush
administration is scheduled to soon offer its proposals concerning
baggage screeners. Allowing the federal government to take over the
baggage screening process as well as other security topics were the
focus of House and Senate hearings Tuesday. 

The Air Line Pilots Association's call to allow pilots to carry firearms
in cockpits was received with mixed enthusiasm Tuesday on Capitol Hill.
The FAA prohibits pilots from being armed. 

``I don't think we need pilots to be trying to be security officers and
pilots,'' Gephardt said. ``I think they have enough to get the plane to
safety.'' 

House Majority Leader Dick Armey said he would ``have more of an
affinity for'' arming pilots with stun guns but added that he was
keeping an open mind on the issue. 

Duane Woerth, president of the pilots' union, said armed pilots would be
equipped with bullets that ``disintegrate on impact'' and would not be a
danger to the aircraft. He said pilots would get the same training in
the use of firearms that armed sky marshals get and would undergo
extensive background checking and psychological testing. 

``It is probably safe to say that the entire aviation industry ...
enjoyed a false sense of security before Sept. 11,'' Woerth said. ``We
must replace that false sense of security with a genuine sense of
security.'' 

Gephardt said a better idea is to fortify the doors of the cockpit so
that pilots are sealed off from hijackers. 

Officials for both the pilots' and flight attendants' unions said they
wanted new curbs on carry-on baggage. 

``Because of the lack of sufficient limits on carry-on baggage,
screeners are checking thousands of bags,'' said Patricia A. Friend,
president of the Association of Flight Attendants. ``This makes proper
scanning difficult if not impossible.'' 

About 1.3 billion people are screened annually at airport security
points. Most of it is done by low-paid workers of private companies
contracted by airlines. 

John M. Meenan, senior vice president of the airline industry's Air
Transport Association, told the committee that the time had come for
airport security to come under federal control. 

``We have seen we don't have the capacity to deal with terrorism. Only
the federal government does,'' Meenan said. 

At the Senate hearing, Robert Baker, vice chairman of American Airlines,
said the changes ``represent an important opportunity to both enhance
security and improve public confidence.'' 

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., who supports federalizing
airport security, said legislation on it could be taken up in the Senate
as early as next week. 

But he said it also may include a package of increased unemployment
benefits for the 100,000 airline employees either laid off or told they
will be laid off. 

Gephardt and other Democrats have proposed $3.75 billion in unemployment
assistance. 

``It would be very difficult to pass an airline security bill without
the myriad problems of unemployed workers'' being addressed in the
Senate, Daschle said. ``We've indicated that to our Republican
colleagues, as well as to the administration.'' 

The Bush administration, meanwhile, is awaiting the reports due Oct. 1
from a pair of task forces Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta
appointed to recommend security in airports and aboard airliners. 

Mineta told lawmakers last week that putting federal civil servants in
the airport screening jobs would require 28,000 new workers and cost
$1.8 billion.

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