Panel extends some airports' screening deadlines

The Senate Commerce Committee voted Thursday to give up to 40 airports an additional year to install explosives detection equipment for screening passenger bags.

These airports-some of the nation's largest-are having trouble meeting the Dec. 31 deadline set by Congress last year. The committee originally intended a six-month extension, but Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said six months would not be enough time for airports that need to change infrastructure to accommodate screening machines.

The committee approved Hutchison's amendment on a voice vote. "In California, Florida, Georgia, there are going to be problems with the six-month deadline," she said.

But Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said the government should hold firm on just a six-month extension.

"The terrorists are not sitting around and saying, `We'll just wait to attack until they get it fixed,'" she said.

As part of its Homeland Security Department legislation, the House earlier this year voted to extend the deadline for all airports by a year. House Transportation and Infrastructure Aviation Subcommittee Chairman John Mica, R-Fla., said the committee is reviewing the Senate package and will craft some legislation of its own next week. He said the committee would revisit the deadline extension.

"There'll be something in the technical corrections bill on it," he told CongressDaily Thursday.

Other provisions in the Senate bill would require air cargo to be inspected, while mandating background checks on foreign flight school students and training for aviation workers to verify people's identity.

It also would ban small planes from flying over stadiums for six months and impose prison sentences for up to 10 years for intentionally bypassing airport security checkpoints. And it would permit non-citizens to work in security jobs.