White House signals Bush may issue executive order on airport security

House Republican leaders vowed to block creation of a new federal airport security bureaucracy on Friday as the White House signaled President Bush would enact new security measures by executive order if the House and Senate fail to agree on an airport security bill.

Reps. Don Young, R-Alaska, and John Mica, R-Fla., announced they would introduce an aviation security bill on Wednesday that would allow the government to continue using contract employees to screen baggage. The bill closely tracks a draft Bush administration airport security plan and would likely be supported by President Bush, according to Steve Hansen, communications director for the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

"It's pretty close to [the Bush plan]," said Hansen. "The administration had a lot of input on the bill."

The House bill would create a new undersecretary of aviation security in the Transportation Department to head airport security, instead of locating airport security duties in the Justice Department, as a bill passed by the Senate Thursday would do.

Young's proposal is the latest sign that House Republican leaders plan to fight the federalization of airport security a day after the Senate voted unanimously to add baggage screeners to the federal payroll. House Republicans say the Senate plan would add 28,000 jobs to the federal workforce for no viable security reason.

House Democrats used impassioned language Friday afternoon to demand that GOP leaders immediately schedule a floor debate on airline security.

"The American people deserve to know that they are safe when they are in the air," House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., said at a news conference.

Democratic Rep. Nita Lowey, who represents a New York district close to the World Trade Center site, lamented that the House passed a $15 billion airline industry assistance bill three days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but has not passed security legislation in the month since.

"I don't want to leave D.C. until this security bill that passed the Senate by 100 to 0 is passed in the House," Lowey said, referring to the Senate vote.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Friday that President Bush was prepared to issue an executive order on airport security if the House and Senate could not agree on the federalization question.

"Obviously there's a dispute between the Senate and the House on this," Fleischer said. "And obviously some of these [security measures] President Bush does have the authority to do on his own, but his preference is for Congress to get it done."

Both the Bush proposal and the House bill would require performance standards for baggage screeners, make the government perform background checks on all screeners, and station a federal law enforcement officer at every screening point in airports.

Mark Wegner and April Fulton of CongressDaily contributed to this report.