WASHINGTON – After weeks of haggling, Congress on Friday passed a bill that would turn over security in all the nation’s airports to the federal government within a year. President Bush is expected to sign the bill into law on Monday, his advisers said. Lawmakers hope the measure will reassure the public about flying over next week’s Thanksgiving holiday, normally the year’s busiest travel time.
The legislation, agreed to by Congressional negotiators on Thursday, would cost between $2.5 billion and $2.6 billion. In addition to putting airport screening under federal control with a federal work force, the legislation moves toward inspection of all checked bags, requires fortified cockpit doors, increases the use of air marshals on flights and law enforcement in all areas of airports, and increases coordination between the Transportation Department and law enforcement agencies to cross-check passengers.
A new agency would be created in the Transportation Department to oversee all transportation security matters. A $2.50 passenger fee per flight, with a maximum of $5 per trip, is levied to pay for the added security. The legislation, said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., would have a “major, major impact on the American people” who are reluctant to board an airliner because of fears that air travel is not safe.
“From a confidence-building point of view I think it will have a very important impact,” said McCain, a key sponsor of the Senate-passed legislation along with Sen. Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee.
“That ends hijackings,” Hollings said of the requirement that cockpit doors be fortified and locked during flights.
“We are going to see immediate changes” in aviation security, said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, a chief sponsor of the legislation that passed by a voice vote.
Some of the provisions, such as required use of explosives detection machines, could take months or years to put in place, but lawmakers said the psychological effects of enacting the legislation could be instant.
