The Feds Take On Airport Security

By KAREN TUMULTY

Senate Republican leader Trent Lott was in Times Square last Monday morning, punching the button to open NASDAQ trading, when a now familiar image of smoke rising from rubble flashed across a nearby bank of television screens. "Is that Afghanistan?" Lott aide Ron Bonjean whispered to the NASDAQ official standing next to him. "No," came the answer. "It's Queens."

Whether the crash of American Airlines Flight 587 was an accident or an act of terrorism, Lott knew at that moment it was imperative for Congress to end a month of political bickering over aviation-security legislation. Voters would be outraged if no bill were signed before the busy Thanksgiving travel season. By Monday afternoon, Lott announced that Congress would pass the legislation and have it to President Bush by the end of the week.

But declaring it was one thing; getting it done was another. It took a delicate, below-the-radar diplomatic mission by Lott to end the stalemate. House and Senate negotiators were getting nowhere on settling the crucial question of whether to put 28,000 new federal workers in charge of screening passengers and baggage, in place of the private contractors who have bungled the job so often. The Democratic-run Senate had voted yes, 100 to 0, but House Republican leaders were adamantly opposed to so large an expansion of the federal work force. Lott, who voted for the Senate bill, later said he really supported the House position, and so had the President. But someone had to give, and with public opinion heavily on the other side, Lott knew it would have to be his fellow Republicans in the House.

On Wednesday, the Senate Republican leader shuttled, unannounced and unaccompanied by aides, between the offices of Ernest Hollings of South Carolina, the wily Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, and Tom DeLay of Texas, the fire-breathing House Republican whip. Lott's proposal: federal employees would be hired to do the screening, but airports could switch back to private contractors if they wanted after three years. "We've got to get this done," Lott pleaded with DeLay. "This is a way to do it."

The deal was an obvious win for the Senate, as well as for House Democrats who had largely voted against the bill that passed their chamber. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said it was hard to imagine airports actually exercising the bill's option to hire private baggage screeners. But Lott--who once held DeLay's job in the House--had come up with a way for House Republicans to save face. And if they didn't take it, Hollings threatened to push the "compromise" through the Senate anyway, and put House Republicans in the position of killing it. By the time the House passed the bill on Friday with a 410-to-9 vote, Transportation Committee chairman Don Young, an Alaska Republican, was calling it "the best security bill this nation has ever had for the flying public."

It will take months, of course, before passengers see many provisions of the bill take effect. But lawmakers are hoping the simple fact that they have finally passed a bill will make the public feel better about flying. Or at least, make it feel better about Congress.

--By Karen Tumulty