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Politics : Right Wing Extremist Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: calgal who wrote (27174)	7/11/2002 1:46:18 AM
From: calgal	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 59480

House approves guns in cockpits Pilot Sten Molin is shown in the cockpit of an American Airlines jetliner. WASHINGTON (AP) — Pilots could carry guns in the cockpit to defend their planes against terrorists under a bill the House passed overwhelmingly Wednesday despite opposition from the White House and the airlines. The legislation, approved by a vote of 310-113, would allow guns for more than 70,000 pilots if they agreed to undergo training. Lawmakers stripped out provisions that would have limited the program to some 1,400 pilots, about 2% of those flying. Despite the strong House support, prospects in the Senate were not good for the legislation. Besides the White House, those opposing it include Ernest Hollings, a South Carolina Democrat who heads the Senate Commerce Committee. The guns-in-cockpits question is among a host of aviation security issues that arose after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. In this case, House GOP leaders have been at odds with the administration, which has repeatedly argued that cockpit crews should focus on flying planes and let air marshals worry about security. "We believe that aviation security has been improved in several ways, including strengthened cockpit doors and additional federal air marshals on airlines," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said after the vote. "It is not necessary to arm pilots. Their primary responsibility is to fly the airplane." Though Republican and Democratic leaders of the House Transportation Committee agreed to arm only a fraction of the pilots, rank-and-file lawmakers voted to expand the program to any pilot who volunteers. "If there is a credible threat that requires arming pilots, why would you restrict yourself?" said an amendment sponsor, Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore. "Having that minuscule number of pilots trained and armed would not make any sense. If the pilots should be armed, there should be some significant number." The measure also would require more self-defense training for flight attendants and give the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) 90 days to act on an airline's request to equip pilots and flight attendants with non-lethal weapons such as stun guns. "Today, armed F-16s are prepared to shoot down any commercial jet that is hijacked by terrorists," said Transportation Committee chairman Don Young, R-Alaska. "It is imperative that under these new circumstances, we must allow trained and qualified pilots to serve as the last line of defense against such a potential disaster." Pilot unions have lobbied for the right to carry guns, but the airline industry has opposed the idea, saying stronger cockpit doors and the presence of air marshals provide protection against hijackings. The industry also is concerned about what would happen if a passenger or crew member was hit by an errant bullet, or what kind of damage could be done to the airplane and its systems, said Michael Wascom, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association. A flight attendants union also opposed arming pilots. "Giving guns to pilots without specific cabin defense requirements for airlines could be deadly for flight attendants and passengers," Patricia Friend, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, said last month. TSA head John Magaw, who announced the administration's position against guns in cockpits, has said that a pilot should give undivided attention to flying his plane, landing it as quickly as possible and conducting in-flight maneuvers to keep hijackers off balance. Rep. John Mica, chairman of the House aviation subcommittee, dismissed the administration's objections. "Bureaucrats set the rules. We set the policy and the laws," said Mica, R-Fla. Pilot unions said their members needed the guns to prevent terrorists from breaking into cockpits and commandeering airplanes, as happened last September. The Air Line Pilots Association has contributed $764,000 to federal candidates since Jan. 1, 2001. That's more in donations than was given to candidates by any individual airline, with 85% of the money going to Democrats, many of whom joined the majority House Republicans in supporting the legislation. Before the vote, the Allied Pilots Association, which represents American Airlines pilots, urged its members to call lawmakers and ask them to increase the number of pilots who could carry guns. Although passage in the House had been predicted, the legislation faced difficult obstacles on the other side of the Capitol. Congressional aides have suggested that the measure may be offered as an amendment to a bill providing money for the Transportation Department, because Hollings' opposition is enough under Senate rules to keep the armed-pilots bill from coming up for a vote. "A freestanding bill is not the only way to pass something in the Senate," said Sen. Robert Smith, R-N.H. Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved usatoday.com

To: calgal who wrote (27174)	7/11/2002 1:51:06 AM
From: calgal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 59480

House Works on Bush Security Plan Wednesday, July 10, 2002 WASHINGTON — President Bush's proposed Homeland Security Department is beginning to take shape in the House, where a battery of committees is moving with unusual speed to assemble enabling legislation. Five committees were set to vote Wednesday on their parts of the Cabinet-level agency, with a similar number expecting to act Thursday. Bush, meanwhile, was planning to meet Wednesday with some of the 170,000 federal workers that would be transferred to the new department. House leaders are aiming to get a bill creating the agency ready for a floor vote next week. First, though, the pieces must go through a special select committee chaired by House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas. Armey said Tuesday that the panel would be "respectful" of what the other House committees produce but would act independently. That means any changes approved by the panels could be short-lived. "We do not feel bound by the chapter and verse details of the president's proposal or of any of the committees," he said. "We think the committees' expertise is going to make the president's proposal an even better proposal." The Senate is taking a somewhat slower approach even as Democratic leaders aim to get a bill to Bush by mid-September. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., intends to have the Senate version of the proposal on the floor the last week of July. Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., said he expected the Senate measure to reflect much of Bush's plan. "There are some disagreements, but I don't feel they are deep and divisive," Lieberman said. Also Tuesday, law enforcement officials and the Coast Guard chief told Congress it would be a mistake to split their agencies into pieces, urging instead that lawmakers move them entirely into the new Homeland Security Department. Officials from the Customs Service, the Coast Guard, the Secret Service and the just-created Transportation Security Administration told a House Judiciary subcommittee that all of their duties are intertwined and some could suffer if not transferred intact to the new agency, as President Bush proposed. Many members of Congress have the opposite concern. They say an agency like the Coast Guard, which performs such tasks as marine search-and-rescue and fisheries management, might make security such a high priority that the other jobs lose emphasis. "Some fear that the Coast Guard may be put in a position of compromising your other duties," said Rep. Howard Coble, R-N.C. Adm. Thomas Collins, commandant of the Coast Guard, said dividing the agency's responsibilities between Homeland Security and the Transportation Department would threaten its ability to do any job properly. The same cutters, boats, aircraft and people are involved in all the Coast Guard's tasks, he said. "Mixing safety and security is not like mixing oil and water," Collins said. Customs Commissioner Robert Bonner said that shortly after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the heightened focus on security led to 12-hour waits at some U.S. border crossings. Within a week, he said, traffic was essentially back to normal because Customs was able to integrate its commerce and law enforcement components to complete one mission. "The worst thing you could do is take out the trade functions and leave them behind someplace," Bonner said. "We have to maintain that balance." foxnews.com