House: No Fed Control of Airport Screeners

ByABC News
November 1, 2001, 8:05 PM

Nov. 2 -- The House of Representatives has approved a hotly contested airline security bill that would keep airport baggage screening in the hands of private companies.

The Republican-sponsored measure, passed by a vote of 286-139 late Thursday, calls for increased federal oversight of baggage screeners — in contrast to a bill passed unanimously by the Senate Oct. 12, which would have converted the 28,000 screeners into federal employees.

Earlier in the evening, the House narrowly defeated a Democratic-backed plan to approve the same Senate. The effort failed 218-214.

Now, House and Senate lawmakers must work out a compromise measure.

"The American people deserve tough security standards and the House plan delivers," President Bush said in a written statement shortly after the bill passed the House. "I urgethe House and Senate to work together to send a strong and effective bill to my desk."

Public Sector vs. Private Industry

The major sticking point during House debate was the role of the nation's airport baggage screeners.

House Democrats and some Republican moderates support a Senate bill, passed unanimously Oct. 12, nationalizing baggage screening and adding the workers to the government workforce.

The GOP-backed House bill would increase federal oversight of the security workers, but keep screening in the hands of private security companies.

A long-standing desire to limit the size of the federal government and their traditional wariness about organized labor have been behind the House Republicans' opposition to the Senate bill.

During the floor debate, Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., warned the Senate bill would create "the biggest bureaucracy in the history of a generation."

The GOP leadership does not want, as House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, puts it, to "create 28,000 union members," claiming it would be difficult to get rid of inadequate employees. Additionally, the House bill, unlike its Senate counterpart, specifically forbids baggage screeners from going on strike.