Congresswoman Laura Richardson Manages the House Floor for H.R. 1801, the Risk-Based Security Screening for Members of the Armed Forces Act

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Senate amendment to H.R. 1801, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

As a member of the Committee of Homeland Security and as an ardent supporter of the men and women of the armed services, I am pleased to return today as we're on the floor to consider the Senate amendment to H.R. 1801, the Risk-Based Security Screening for Members of the Armed Forces Act.

This legislation requires the Transportation Security Administration to develop a plan for providing expedited screening to our military personnel at airport security checkpoints.

As the gentleman from Minnesota just alluded to, the Senate amendment took a good bill and made it even better by expressly including new safeguards. Last Congress, on a bipartisan basis, an earlier version of this legislation was accepted as an amendment during the consideration of the Transportation Security Administration Authorization Act, which passed this House by 397-25, which was not acted upon by the Senate.

H.R. 1801 properly recognizes the preciousness of time--nothing more important than time--to the patriotic men and women serving in our armed services, but it does not compromise aviation security. Our troops help keep our country safe. While first ensuring safety, the least we can do is devise methods to help speed up the screening process for our troops who are in uniform and who are traveling on airplanes while on official duty.

Since 2001, there have been more than 2 million troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. As our military presence in Iraq winds down, more servicemembers will, thankfully, be coming home. We owe it to them and to all of our servicemembers to do all we can to smooth their travels so that they can get home and into the arms of their loving families. This legislation establishes adequate parameters that will ensure that our troops and their families, including the 236,963 military personnel in my home State of California, will be given the opportunity to board an aircraft in a security-approved expedited manner. If approved today, this legislation will go directly to the President for his signature.

With the enactment of H.R. 1801, we have the opportunity to show the country, despite all the acrimony that has been punctuated in this 112th Congress, we can accomplish good things for the American people when we focus on areas of common ground and when compromise is embraced. So I urge my colleagues to support this legislation with the Senate amendment.

Mr. Speaker, I am compelled to build upon this current debate of H.R. 1801 and use this opportunity to urge the Republican leadership to bring to the floor additional bipartisan, commonsense homeland security legislation. This is the only bill reported by the Committee on Homeland Security to be considered before the full House. There are a number of other Homeland Security bills on the Union Calendar that warrant consideration by the full House as well.

Among them is H.R. 1447, introduced by Ranking Member Bennie Thompson.

This legislation seeks to enhance TSA's coordination with private-sector stakeholders on aviation policy. Also on the Union Calendar is H.R. 1165, authored by Representative Jackson Lee, which would strengthen the TSA Ombudsman office.

With bipartisan support, both of these bills were ordered reported by the Committee on Homeland Security. Despite having received bipartisan support from the committee, these bills have lingered on the Union Calendar for 40-plus days. I urge the Republican leadership to schedule these bills for consideration, as I am confident they will return to this House with overwhelming bipartisan support.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.