Transportation Security Administration Authorization Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. NORTON. I thank the gentleman for yielding, but above all, I thank him for his masterful work in further cleaning up airport transportation security and for the cooperation he established with the minority.

I particularly thank the chair for including helicopters in the General Aviation Working Group section and for the working group itself because, Mr. Chairman, the large-scale airport requirements have begun to creep into general aviation. The best example of that is right here in the Nation's Capital, where we're down from 200 general aviation flights per month to 200 per year--only, I must say, in the District of Columbia because we don't have enough guidance as to how general aviation should be treated.

General Aviation was reopened here in the Nation's Capital for the first time only a couple years ago after the Transportation Committee threatened to hold TSA in contempt if it didn't open Reagan National Airport to general aviation. Then TSA issued regulations that essentially kept general
aviation out of the Nation's Capital, signalling that, 7 or 8 years after 9/11, we still don't know how to keep our capital safe, which surely is not the case. The irrationality begins to mount. In addition, commercial helicopters had been allowed to come to Reagan with the Secret Service's permission, which had kept the helicopter port open because it served certain security purposes but has closed down commercial service now.

So I thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the General Aviation working group to straighten out these issues.

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