WASHINGTON, D.C. – At today’s conference on transportation security, United States Senators Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) gave the following opening statement:

“Mr. Chairman, thank you for holding today’s conference meeting.

“We stand in the shadow of September 11th’s fifth anniversary and we are not as safe as we could be. We inspect just five percent of incoming shipping containers—while ninety-five percent gets into our country without us knowing what’s inside. Millions of people ride mass transit everyday, and 12 billion tons of cargo travel by rail, but we are not doing enough to protect those people or systems. And we have an arbitrary cap of forty-five thousand TSA screeners.

“If we don’t strike this cap, our constituents will know who to blame when airport security lines snake across the terminal.

“Anyone who has taken a flight recently knows that since 9/11, long lines have been the rule rather than the exception. And in the wake of the foiled terror attack in London last month, too few screeners have been on duty for too long.

“The Senate approved my screener provision by a vote of 85-12. I plan to offer it as an amendment to this conference report, as—sadly—the House has refused to even accept it.

“I also intend to offer an amendment on rail security—the Senate has passed rail security legislation twice, and twice the House has failed to act on it.

“By failing to pass these important Senate rail security and mass transit security provisions, we are simply shifting targets for terrorists.”

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