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 hile
a conference committee tries to come up with a compromise between
competing House and Senate versions of an aviation-security bill,
several Republican senators are now backing away from their earlier
support of the Senate bill, which calls for full federalization
of the nation's 28,000 baggage screeners.
The Senate
unanimously approved the Aviation Security Act nearly one month
ago. Along with other measures, like strengthening the federal sky-marshal
program, the bill directed the administration to create an all-federal
baggage-screening force. Later, the House, which took more time
to study the issue, passed a bill that gave the administration considerable
flexibility to use private security firms under strict federal supervision.
Advocates of
full federalization have cited the 100-to-0 vote in the Senate as
evidence that the Senate plan for baggage screeners should prevail
in the final bill that is sent to the president's desk. "One
hundred to nothing, the United States Senate voted for our bill,"
Massachusetts Democratic Senator John Kerry said last weekend on
NBC. "Almost 60 percent of the entire Congress has voted to
create a federal screening force."
But yesterday
17 Republican senators sent a letter to the chairmen and ranking
members of the Senate Commerce Committee and House Transportation
Committee saying they never really wanted full federalization. "While
we supported and the Senate unanimously passed S. 1447 [the Aviation
Security Act], we had strong misgivings with respect to the federalization
of airport screeners," the senators wrote. "In addition
to the urgency of passing an aviation security bill, our support
of S. 1447 was largely due to other important security provisions
such as reinforced cockpit doors and an increased presence of federal
air marshals." The letter was signed by Jesse Helms, Mitch
McConnell, Don Nickles, Phil Gramm, Kit Bond, Craig Thomas, Jim
Inhofe, Larry Craig, Bob Smith, John Ensign, Judd Gregg, Mike Enzi,
Wayne Allard, Jeff Sessions, Jim Bunning, Mike Crapo, and George
Allen.
Even though
the letter indicates the senators now oppose a key proposal that
they voted for less than a month ago, Republican sources insist
there has been no flip-flop on the issue. The GOP explanation is
this: At the time of the unanimous vote on aviation security, Republican
senators knew they could not win — and also knew that the House
would pass what Republicans viewed as a much better bill. Thus,
GOP senators voted for the full-federalization bill in hopes that
an acceptable compromise would emerge from a conference committee.
Therefore, the explanation goes, the new letter does not mean that
Republican senators have changed positions. "I wouldn't consider
it a backoff," says one Senate aide. "You shouldn't read
anything into unanimous support in the Senate. Everyone knew the
House would pass a separate version."
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