Don Young

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. This is the language negotiated with the Senate side. It is not everything I wanted. I had 60,000 pilots sign a petition asking for permission to carry a weapon on board with proper training. I supported that. I talked about that in conference, but it was not a doable thing. Right now, though, I have suggested that the pilots, under the negotiations, which they have to negotiate with every contract they do with the airlines, that that be part of the negotiations. I believe we will see a lot of airlines, just as United already is saying that their pilots will carry stun guns, that they can argue this with their parent companies in their negotiations. Again, this is a compromise. It is the best I could do in this conference on this issue itself.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Under this language, yes, the air carrier could say no.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. I will be supporting the gentleman when he works on that.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Sensenbrenner), a member of the conference.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Duncan), another member of the conference.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Ehlers), a member of the conference. (Mr. EHLERS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield, that is the language that is in the bill at this time.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton) for the purpose of an integral colloquy. (Mr. BARTON of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Shays).

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Kirk).

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Bachus).

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Blunt).

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Kennedy).

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay), a great leader.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Foley).

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, how much time remains on each side?

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Smith).

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. This has been an interesting hour, considering the time we put into the debate of the bill that was before us 2 weeks ago. Everybody is thanking everybody. I like that better than hollering at one another. I again would suggest that the House did itself proud today. And I have never been prouder than now, being a House Member. And the more I am around this body, the prouder I am about the quality of the people that work here, the intelligence which they bring to this body, the diversity that they bring to this body. This is truly America. This is the House of the people. As the gentleman from Minnesota mentioned, we have a House product. It may have a Senate name on it, it may be a Senate number, but this is truly a House product, because we had people like the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Lipinski), the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar), and the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio). We may disagree on many things, but on this issue we agreed on the best security system, and today we have achieved that. The gentleman from Minnesota also mentioned the staff, and I will not mention all the names, because I probably would forget somebody, but I will say that I am deeply proud of their work and of the time they put in, because we have had a product brought to this House that I believe is the finest piece of legislation for aviation that has ever passed. Yes, we will continue to oversee, and we will be involved, and we will make sure this system works as we envision it working, because I truly believe the American people want that. But America has won today, this House has won today, and I am deeply proud of being chairman of this committee.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I would like to remind people we did pass this bill with 269, I believe, votes in the House and that is an overwhelming majority. I am very proud of that; and again, I will say and repeat it again and again: just to do something to have a charade conveyed upon the people I will not be part of, just to say we passed something and say it does something when it does not do it. I am not going to rehash what happened last week in the sense that the other body's bill does not do it, and we do a disservice when we sell something to the public that is not really factually doing what we say it does. Let us go to conference and see if we can solve this problem; but I also urge my colleagues to talk to the other body and suggest that since they have their feet dug in concrete, it is going to be a little difficult. But what we did last week was the right thing to do, was the right thing for the public, and it will be the right thing for the public in the future, not only today but in the future. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mica).

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, we probably have one closing statement by myself or the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mica) and that is it.