Both sides claim winning edge in House aviation security showdown

With both sides claiming to have the votes and congressional observers saying the outcome is too close to call, the House heads for a showdown Thursday on aviation security--an issue that ties directly to the Sept. 11 attacks and exemplifies the partisan divide between many House Democrats and Republicans.

Both the House GOP leadership and Democrats said Tuesday their competing bills on aviation security have the votes to prevail-- and both sides are furiously counting the votes in anticipation of House floor action Thursday.

The House Rules Committee met on the structure of the upcoming debate, but decided not to take action Tuesday night because the bill does not come up for floor consideration today. Democrats said they have been assured of a straight vote on their measure as a substitute.

A revised version of the House GOP bill, dated Tuesday afternoon, also contained a section limiting liability for damages arising from the airline crashes of Sept. 11. House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska, said it had been included at the behest of Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and might have to be dealt with in separate legislation.

During the start of the Rules Committee markup, Rules Chairman David Dreier, R-Calif., said he was looking forward to a "free-flowing debate on the differences" between the bills. The committee heard testimony on several proposed amendments, such as allowing legal immigrants to remain in their airport screening jobs and setting a deadline for security to begin screening all checked baggage.

Both the GOP-sponsored House bill and the Senate-passed bill would create a new federal position within the Transportation Department to oversee transportation security, and both would secure cockpit doors and increase the number of air marshals on domestic flights. However, the Senate bill would give most of the oversight to the Justice Department.

But the overriding conflict remained whether to make airport screeners federal workers.

Members held a day of competing press conferences, statements and announcements Tuesday on the merits of the two bills. At the White House, President Bush met separately with small groups of moderate Democrats and Republicans, seeking support for the Republican House bill.

House Republicans discussed some changes to their bill, such as beefing up baggage screening requirements and requiring that screeners be U.S. citizens.

It was unclear whether that version would be the final one, aides said.

House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, had promised votes on a Democratic substitute and a motion to recommit, but suggested that the House GOP bill--which would beef up aviation security but not require airport screeners to become federal employees--would prevail.

Young said, "I never do anything halfway," and "We'll have the votes," at a press conference Tuesday.

But Democrats, who appeared to be firmly behind the Senate bill federalizing screeners, were just as confident.

"We will not be divided in the effort to make our planes safer," said Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., at another news conference Tuesday, as he stood with House sponsors of the Senate bill, including Reps. Greg Ganske, R-Iowa, and Robert Andrews, D-N.J.

Also joining them was House Transportation and Infrastructure ranking member James Oberstar, D-Minn., who had introduced his own bill earlier.

Oberstar said his bill, which would have placed air security oversight under DOT rather than DOJ, would not have had the votes to pass.

Later, during Rules Committee debate on the bills, Oberstar said he had tried to work with Young on a bipartisan bill--and they had come close. But Oberstar noted, "Other forces [are] at work here."

And senators, who boasted of the 100-0 vote in their chamber on the issue earlier this month, increased pressure on the House to act before the holidays to restore the public's confidence in the aviation system.

"The sooner they pass it the better.... We can't wait much longer," Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said Tuesday, noting that the holiday travel season would begin soon.

Interest groups also weighed in.

"The Congress rushed to pass a $15 billion taxpayer bailout of the aviation industry without ever conditioning it on basic improvements in aviation security, which the industry has long opposed," said Joan Claybrook, Public Citizen president, in a statement Tuesday.

Pilots and flight attendants weighed in on the side of the Senate bill, while the International Brotherhood of Police Officers said the Young bill "creates the proper strong federal presence in aviation security."

President Bush met Tuesday at the White House with a group of about a dozen moderate Democrats seeking support for the Young bill.

What he got instead, according to Democratic Rep. Ellen Tauscher of California, was grumbling about how his allies in the Republican leadership had politicized the process.

"[House Majority Whip] Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and Dick Armey have not talked about anything else for seven weeks--that they would not federalize this workforce--and that has bogged down the ability for any of us to get commonsense and practical negotiations going on a bill that would not have to be conference-able," Tauscher said.

She complained that the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee had not marked up a bill and argued that the House process would cause some Democrats who might have opposed a version of the Senate bill--which federalizes airport screeners-- to back it instead.

"I think many of us are willing to hold our nose and vote for the Senate bill," she said.

Nevertheless, she and Rep. Dennis Moore, D-Kan., who also attended, said they were looking at the Young bill. Moore said he might support it, although he noted "some problems with that."

But Tauscher said she told Bush she could not support the Young bill, and "we have a stronger bill on the Democratic side," in reference to Oberstar's legislation.

Tauscher said her hope was to get a bill to the President quickly, indicating she would support legislation that could negate the need for a conference with the Senate.

More collegial was a separate meeting Bush held with a similarly sized group of House Republicans.

House Chief Deputy Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., indicated afterwards that he was optimistic about the Young bill's chances.

But Blunt did not try to dismiss a statement made over the weekend by White House Chief of Staff Card, who said Bush probably would sign legislation federalizing airport workers if such a bill landed on his desk.

"What he's saying is that this is too important an issue to keep putting off," Blunt said. "The statements have been consistent from the White House that they wouldn't veto a bill that deals with airline security."