Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.
Mr. Chairman, I rise to speak on the Markey amendment, and that issue is the glaring hole that remains in our airline security. It is a shocking realization for most Americans to learn that almost fully half of the cargo that is in the hold of an air passenger plane when they get on a plane to go on vacation or work travel, that almost half of that cargo is commercial cargo that is never screened by anyone for explosives.
That is a massive failure in our airline security. Some months ago I introduced the Airline Cargo Security Act modeled after legislation by Senators Feinstein and Hutchinson which would require the TSA to adopt comprehensive measures to inspect airline cargo. It gives the TSA flexibility to use a variety of different methods to accomplish this, from new technologies to blast-proof containers, to a database of known shippers; but it requires that the job get done. The airline industry is hanging by a slender thread. Terrorists do not have to hijack our airplanes any more to wreak chaos on this industry and wreak devastation on this country and our economy. They just have to blow a plane out of the sky. Given the fact that so much of the cargo is not screened for anything, this is tragically too easy to accomplish. This has to change. This has to change.
It is hard to overstate the significance and the disparity of this security problem. All of us have had the experience of going through the airport now and having to take our belt and shoes off and remove the toenail clippers from our carry-on luggage, but imagine the fact that in the hold of that plane are huge containers which have not been inspected by anyone. And when we consider the security lapses in shipping that cargo, the opportunities when that freight is forwarded to include explosive or other dangerous materials in that cargo, it is extraordinary.
Indeed, I think most Americans would find it baffling that we go through these personally intrusive measures when we go to the airport, but our cargo goes through nothing. We cannot fight the last battle; we cannot simply predict that terrorists are going to use the same technique they used before. We have to be forward-thinking and recognize that there are wholesale gaps in what we are doing to protect the American people. I applaud my colleague for raising this issue in this legislation. I want to urge my colleagues both here today and in the future to address the issue of cargo security. Let us not wait for a tragedy to awaken us to this problem.