AVIATION SECURITY-NEXT STEPS

MONDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2001

U.S. SENATE,

COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION,

Atlanta, GA. The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:16 a.m. in room 2306, Richard B. Russell Federal Building, Atlanta, Georgia, Hon. Max Cleland, presiding.

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. MAX CLELAND,

U.S. SENATOR FROM GEORGIA

Senator CLELAND. The Senate Commerce Committee will come to order.

We are delighted to have all of you present today. Let me just say that as a member of the Commerce Committee and the Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and the Subcommittee on Aviation, it has been quite a ride since September 11. Our transportation infrastructure has taken a hit, particularly our airlines. And this being the site of the busiest airport in the world, we wanted to come here and see how we were progressing and what we needed to do to stay on track with the new aviation security law. One of the_wonderful people we have with us today is Deputy Secretary of Transportation Michael Jackson. Michael, we are delighted that you came south and we thank you very much. Give Secretary of Transportation Norm Mineta our best regards. He has got a tough job and he is a distinguished American and a great friend. We would love for you to convey our thanks to him for letting you come.

I have a basic opening statement that I would like to share with you and then we will get into the testimony. We will try to conclude today by noon. We will ask all of our panelists to try to keep their remarks to about 5 to 8 minutes. We are not going to be too rigid in that regard because we want you to share with us how you are coming along. I would like to lead off by again giving thanks to everybody who came today.

We have on the books now a landmark aviation security bill that was passed originally by the Senate 100 to 0, which is a historic moment in and of itself, and a bill was later passed by the House. The conferees basically adopted about 98 percent of the Senate bill and it was signed into law by the President. This historic piece of legislation was enacted in response to the events of September 11 when, as you know, terrorists commandeered U.S. commercial jets filled with passengers and used them as weapons of mass destruction.

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It was an act of war on America's citizens. On that day of infamy, there were more casualties at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and on the four hijacked jets than there were at Pearl Harbor.

The terrorist attacks of September 11 have precipitated a sea change in attitude on how we view our homeland security. Homeland security, aviation security are now part of our national security. There is no such thing as business as usual any more.

Immediately after the events of 9/11, the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Department of Transportation took steps to tighten aviation security around the country. U.S. airlines and airports put in place security safeguards and Congress passed the most sweeping aviation security bill in history.

Every commercial airport will now have a Federal security manager and the manager will conduct an immediate assessment of safety procedures at the busiest airports in the country. We will have strict uniform national standards for the hiring and training and job performance of the men and women who are on the front lines of ensuring that our airports and airplanes are not only the safest in the world, but also the most secure. Because of this legislation, every airport screener must now be a U.S. citizen. He or she must pass a criminal background check and he or she must perform well in their job. If they do not, they can be fired immediately. Cockpit doors are already being fortified. The number of air marshals on airplanes are already being increased and international flights are now providing the U.S. Customs Service with passenger lists before they can land in this country.

Testifying today will be Deputy Secretary of Transportation Michael Jackson, the No. 2 official at the Department of Transportation. Until the new Under Secretary for Security is sworn in, Mr. Jackson has oversight over the security of our aviation system. I might add that Mr. Jackson once taught political science at the University of Georgia. Go Dogs!

[Laughter.]

Senator CLELAND. Therefore, he will have a bulldog approach to security.

[Laughter.]

Senator CLELAND. Today, the Committee will hear from the Deputy Secretary on the national status of our aviation security in light of the September 11 events, how the new aviation security law is being implemented, and the transition challenges we face.

We are also fortunate to have panelists from Georgia Tech and EDS, who will discuss the latest technologies to shore up security throughout the entire U.S. aviation system, from cockpits to offlimits airport areas.

Hartsfield, the world's busiest airport, Delta with its world headquarters in Atlanta and AirTran are key not just to Georgia's economy, but to our national aviation system as well. We will hear from panelists from each of these Georgia giants, who will tell us what security measures they have put in place since 9/11.

I will caution that our panelists cannot divulge certain information about measures they have already undertaken and will undertake which could compromise national security by benefiting those who wish America harm.

Representing Hartsfield will be its General Manager Mr. Ben DeCosta, who will address the incident of November 16 when an individual breached security at the Atlanta Airport. The security breach triggered the total evacuation of Hartsfield and a temporary halt of incoming and outgoing air traffic. That action caused a ripple effect of delays and flight cancellations. I might add that I have first-hand knowledge of those delays since I spent some quality time on the tarmac of about three and a half hours marooned along with 60 other aircraft due to this incident. It was a scary time; the initial reports were that the individual had a gun. We were all on the tarmac there, no aircraft was allowed to leave Hartsfield or to be boarded at Hartsfield. The only aircraft allowed to land at Hartsfield were those running out of gas. It was a very tense time. We forget that, but I can remember being in that aircraft and we all did not know exactly what was happening until hours later.

I would like to stress that despite those delays, the system here at Hartsfield worked. Hartsfield correctly followed the FAA directive put in place after September 11 that required airport lockdown until airport security could be assured. The November 16 incident revealed a glaring loophole in the system: an intentional security violation aboard an aircraft actually is a Federal crime. But a willful breach of an airport security checkpoint is punishable only by local criminal penalties and Federal civil penalties.

Just as we have at last stepped up to the plate to assure greater uniformity and greater accountability through Federalizing the airport security workforce, I believe it is the responsibility of Congress to address this shortcoming in our Federal laws. Accordingly, later today, I will introduce legislation to make willful violations of airport security checkpoints a Federal crime. We should send the message loud and clear that airport business is serious business, that if you come to a U.S. airport for mischief or for folly, you will pay the consequences. During this hearing, I hope to get input on my bill from our panelists and suggestions on how we can best deter such action in the future.

We have an outstanding line up of panelists today who are here to address the all-important issue of aviation security which, as we have recently learned in the most painful way, is a matter, as I said earlier, of national security.

I look forward to the testimony of our distinguished panelists and I would like to now recognize the Honorable Michael Jackson, Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation. Mr. Jackson, welcome.

STATEMENT OF MICHAEL P. JACKSON, DEPUTY SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION Mr. JACKSON. Senator Cleland, thank you for making me welcome. It is great to be back in Georgia and I will try to combine the bulldog determination with a little bit of that technical ingenuity that Georgia Tech is famous for and get a well-rounded approach to these aviation security issues.

Senator CLELAND. That is a good political answer.
[Laughter.]

Mr. JACKSON. I learned quickly from you, sir.
Senator CLELAND. That is right.

Mr. JACKSON. Senator, what I would like to try to do today is just do a quick overview and with your permission, I would like to submit my prepared remarks for the record.

Senator CLELAND. No objection, so ordered.

Mr. JACKSON. Then I will talk about two things-just a summary of the points that you made and one layer of more detail about the measures that we have taken since September 11 to improve aviation security, and then talk a little bit about how we are going to implement this new landmark legislation on aviation and transportation security, and be happy then to answer any questions that you might have about the particulars.

Last week, President Bush visited the aircraft carrier Enterprise to thank some of our men and women in uniform for the job that they were doing on the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, when he remembered service to our country of the World War II generation, and he said, "We are commissioned by history to face freedom's enemies." And Senator, I think you are absolutely right to say that the war against terrorism is ongoing and will be fought across transportation network of aviation and other transportation modes to make sure that we protect the country against the type of incursions that we witnessed on September 11.

I would like to tell you just briefly, to reinforce what you were saying, that we have put in place since September 11 very dramatic efforts to improve aviation security. This new landmark legislation, which the Commerce Committee pushed forward and advocated, is a substantial set of tools which will increase our capacity to improve transportation security. We must do two things. We must have world class security and world class customer service. We have to be able to make the airline system work well for the passengers. Our customers, as we launch this new system of aviation security under Federal management and with Federal employees, must understand that the taxpayers who are using the airline system are our customers and we are committed to providing world class security without compromise, while trying to make certain that we move the system in an effective and safe, efficient fashion. Right after the events of the 11th, we did a series of things, really putting into place over 50 specific actions over the course of several weeks. On the first afternoon when the Secretary of Transportation ordered all of the aviation system down to the ground and stopped, to protect and assess what we were facing, we faced a series of incremental steps to put our system back together and put it up in increased security. And over the last 3 months, we have repeatedly added measures and assessed the ones that we initially deployed.

I believe that the airline industry did a magnificent job that day and I would be remiss not to say today that the industry, the men and women who worked on the airplanes, who worked on the ground to make that work efficiently, were real heroes that day also and I certainly believe that the air traffic control staff at FAĂ worked in great harmony with them to do the same.

So after we got them down, to get them back up and do it with enhanced security. We fundamentally put in place measures that worked with airports and with airlines.

Let me say just a little bit of an overview about some of the highlights of both and then we will-I would be happy to answer any questions about specific measures as I go through it.

On the airport side, we basically took the passenger-a process map of the passenger experience at the airport and looked at each point of entry and along the way introduced measures that would tighten up and strengthen security. We put manpower, technology and processes in place to increase security at airports. We worked with our airport partners who helped us figure out how to do some of these things in a more effective fashion and we have refined the tools that we initially put in place over the last several months.

At the checkpoints where you come in, there are new measures. On the ground, to provide a barrier against possible bomb, we created a zone. We limited and then refined the process of using curb side check-in. We have placed limits on checked bags and the processes that we are using to move them through the system. We have put a significant number of process changes in at airport checkpoints, at checkpoints where we move passengers through the screening process, new staff from the airlines, National Guard deployments, new procedures to be used and new tools to be deployed at those checkpoints.

In the restricted areas of the airport and the secure zones, we have put a whole series of processes in place to manage the security operation more effectively, including screening at the baggage points and screening at the gates of departure. So we have gone back behind the scenes of airport operation and done a variety of other things as well. We have put restrictions on the people who work at airports, they must go through the same check-in process and screening process. We put in place new rules substantially to enhance the background checking that is conducted and required for working at airports. We have looked at vendors who service airplanes in catering and other services and provided stricter controls

over access.

We have looked at a variety of things on the aircraft themselves and the airlines have really done terrifically well at the door hardening exercise of putting bars and locks on doors to provide that strong barrier against incursions through the cockpit.

So with a variety of these tools, we have tried to reinforce, enhance, improve aviation security. There is much work to be done still. We have this new tool of the Aviation and Transportation Security Act to help us. So maybe I could take just a few moments to explain what this Act does and how we awre proceeding to implement it.

Essentially, the Act provides a new Under Secretary of Transportation reporting directly to Secretary Mineta the tools and the resources to Federalize the screening process for passengers and bags at 429 airports nationwide. We are going to put into place a substantially enhanced team of people and a substantially enhanced technology deployment to look for explosives and to test access to the secure zone and to the aircraft. We are going to continue to put money into technology innovation that will strengthen the cockpit security on board and we will have broad authorities granted to us by Congress to regulate the safety and security of the aircraft and the airports.